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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25372270">Miraculous: Protectors of Paris</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rekko/pseuds/Rekko'>Rekko</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action &amp; Romance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, F/F, F/M, M/M, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:01:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,933</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25372270</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rekko/pseuds/Rekko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette is just a normal girl with a normal life, and Adrien Agreste is a famous model who wished he had one. However, when a super villain wreaks havoc in the city of Paris, they find themselves chosen to bare great power and responsibility.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois/Sabrina Raincomprix, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Origins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Italics indicate thoughts and/or non-visual telecommunication (phones calls or Hawkmoth communicating with his Akuma).</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Roissy Airport is the second busiest airport in all of Europe, with almost 66 million passengers scattered about non-stop. That Saturday evening seemed to pass that 66 million mark, the busy day being a pain for impatient tourists and paranoid businessmen, but for a small; elderly man in a trench coat-it was the best blessing he could ask for.<br/><br/>"Are you really sure he's here?" An annoyed male voice asked from within the coat's left inside pocket.<br/><br/>"Of course he is Plagg! Quit acting like you can't sense his evil like the rest of us," a female voice exclaimed from the old man's right inside pocket.<br/><br/>"What can I say! I'm a god of destruction, evil just kinda blends with my whole vibe," Plagg said in a nonchalant manner.<br/><br/>"Tikki is right Plagg, this is a matter of the upmost urgency; also destruction is not necessarily synonymous with evil," A third; calm male voice spoke from within the old man's hat.<br/><br/>"Thank you Wayzz, for lecturing the god of destruction-on the nature of destruction," Plagg said sarcastically as the old man exited the airport and walked around in search for a taxi.<br/><br/>"Gods? Don't you think that's overselling us a little?" A shy voice asked from within the same pocket as Tikki.<br/><br/>"What else would you call us Nooroo? Fairies?" Plagg asked while saying "fairies" with a mocking tone.<br/><br/>"Fairies! Where!?"  An excitable male voice asked from within Plagg's pocket.<br/><br/>"There aren't any fairies Duusu," Plagg said as Duusu gave a disappointed sigh.<br/><br/>Suddenly the old man stopped in his tracks and, quickly surveyed the crowds of people around him.<br/><br/>"Why have we stopped? Is something wrong my king?" A female voice asked next to Wayzz within the old man's hat.<br/><br/>"Yes Pollen, I sense hostility all around us," The old man said as he spotted five men and four women suspiciously heading towards his direction. All seven of them wore seemingly normal clothing except for three of them wearing business suits, but the old man's keen eye noticed how most of them held their hands near their waist and pockets and how one of them spoke into an earpiece. <br/><br/>"Trixx, prepare for my signal," The old man ordered as the suspicious individuals stalked towards his position.<br/><br/>"Master, I believe this would be an opportune time to work on your French, don't you agree?" Wayzz asked as the old man's hat was slightly lifted from the inside, making three pairs of eyes visible.<br/><br/>The old man chuckled as he rolled his shoulder and cracks his neck. "It has been over seventy years since I last came to this city, but I could never forget such a beautiful language."<br/><br/>The seven suspicious individuals finally closed in on him, surrounding the old man from all sides. "Wayzz! Transforme moi!" The old man exclaimed as three tiny creatures flew from his hat, one of them that looked like a fox created an explosion of orange smoke while the old man glowed green. The massive crowd of people around them immediately panicked, running away as fast and far away from the orange smoke in fear that a bomb had exploded. What followed was a series of gunshots; the bullets ricocheting off an unseen surface before finding its destination inside flesh and bone. The smoke quickly dissipated, revealing seven dead bodies on the ground with fatal bullet wounds caused by their own weapons. Soon after another green glow emitted from a car near the deceased bodies, driving away from the scene, and blending in with other vehicles that sped off in a panic.<br/><br/>"Whoa now Fu, never seen you pull something that cold blooded since we were fighting Nazis," Plague said as he and his fellow kwamis flew from the trench coat.<br/><br/>"Plagg! Show the master some respect!" Tikki exclaimed as she shot Plagg a scolding look.<br/><br/>"Look Tikki he may be our guardian, but I'm fairly sure being gods mean we outrank him."<br/><br/>"Still feels like you're overselling us," Nooroo said with uncertainty.<br/><br/>"Gods or not may we please not refer to the Master by his real name? We mustn't be careless," Wayzz said as the car stopped amid traffic.<br/><br/>The old man chuckled to himself as he took off his hat, revealing the face of an aged, but wise man. "Do not worry Wayzz, we are far away from our enemies," the old man said as he set his hat on the passenger seat. He leaned back on the driver seat and gave a deep sigh as his smile grew somber. "What a mess this week has been."<br/><br/>Tikki floated up to meet the master's grieving mien. "I'm sorry for your loss Master Fu, I know the guardians were like family to you," Tiki said with a mournful mien.<br/><br/>"You're condolences is most appreciated Tikki, but I fear we have more urgent matters that require our attention," Fu said as he took out a dark wooden box form his coat and opened it. The box had a golden outline of a flower, and circular outline in the middle in the shape of the yin-yang symbol. Every section of the flower seemed to have an accessory missing, the reason being that Master Fu was wearing all seven of them  was so he could converse with the kwamis.<br/><br/>"A great evil will be unleashed upon this city very soon, and I must find worthy candidates to wield your powers," Fu said as he turned to Tiki and Plagg. "Starting with the two of you."<br/><br/>"Master if I may speak out of turn, isn't this perhaps a bit too dangerous? We just lost most of the Chinese zodiac, perhaps we should regroup with other miraculous holders and plan a counterattack," Wayzz suggested.<br/><br/>"Wayzz is right! The rabbit holder is here in Paris, right? If we find him, we could totally take on those bozos!" Trixx exclaimed, ready to fight tooth and nail to save her friends.<br/><br/>"But what about the citizens of Paris!? We can't leave them to fend for themselves!" Tikki retorted. <br/><br/>"Oh c'mon, what's leaving the city to the mercy of super villains for a couple months, I'm sure France will be fine," Plagg said as he put his flippers behind his head in a lazy manner. "Let's just find the rabbit holder, take a quick trip to Normandy for some <em>delicious </em>Camembert cheese before finding more miraculous holders and taking on those temple invading suits."<br/><br/>"And let me guess, while we're doing all the fighting you will be eating cheese from all over the world?" Tikki said.<br/><br/>"Oh Tikki you know me too well," Plagg said as he zipped to the dashboard and lazily rested on his side. "I'll be rooting for you guys!"<br/><br/>"Right," Tikki rolled her eyes in annoyance as she sat next to Plagg. "Plagg, where was Camembert cheese invented?"<br/><br/>"In Normandy, that's why I suggested we go there-duh."<br/><br/>"Right, and where is Normandy?"<br/><br/>"In Northern France, that's why I said it would be a quick trip! Jeez Tikki, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Plagg said as Tikki's eye twitched and it looked like a vein in her forehead was about to pop, despite not having any blood vessels. The ladybug kwami took a deep, calming breath before giving her final question. <br/><br/>"Plagg, if Paris gets taken over by an Akuma, where do you think they'll strike next?"<br/><br/>"That's easy, they'll probably just take over the rest of France," Plagg answered innocently, only for his green eyes to widen with the sound of glass shattering in his mind. His laid-back mien turned into sheer fear and dread as he realized his worst nightmare may come to pass. "Wait a minute..."<br/><br/>"How selfless of you Plagg!" Pollen said as she stood next to Plagg with a look of admiration. "You are willing to leave the birthplace of your favorite cheese at the mercy of unknown monstrosities and scoundrels to save our kwami brethren! That must be quite the sacrifice for a cheese connoisseur such as yourself."<br/><br/>"W-Wait, no-but..." before Plagg could collect his words Trixx appeared before him.<br/><br/>"Wow Plagg, for all we know some poor sap might get mad at cheese and turn into a super villain who can erase the existence of cheese. Glad to know you're willing to take one for the team."<br/><br/>It all played out in Plagg's mind. Some philistine suffering the rich smell of finely aged Camembert cheese, followed by an Akuma moth increasing that hatred for cheese and transform the philistine into a Camembert hating monster that would wipe all cheese from existence!<br/><br/>"NOOOOOO!" Plagg exclaimed as he zipped around the car frantically before halting to a stop before Master Fu's amused face. "You have to find Tikki and I new users ASAP! Do it before Camembert is wiped from existence!!!" <br/><br/>"Worry not Plagg, we won't let Camembert be wiped from existence," Fu said with a smile, no matter how dire things seemed, the kwamis' antics always managed to lift his spirits. The guardian turned to the rest of the kwamis who awaited his orders. "I want to save the others just as much as all of you, but if the evil presence in this city is as we fear, then Paris will need protectors to maintain peace."<br/><br/>Wayzz flew up by Plagg's side with a concerned look. "Master, are you sure the powers of creation and destruction should be bestowed upon first? If they were to fall into the wrong hands..." Wayzz felt a flipper touch his shoulder; the turtle kwami turned his head to see Tikki giving him a confidant; comforting smile.<br/><br/>"I understand your concern Wayzz, but I trust the Master's judgment," Tikki said with hope and determination.<br/><br/>As traffic became less congested, the cars finally began to move. The kwamis floated over to the dashboard and sat as they witnessed the city come into view. All the kwamis were amazed to see how much the city had changed after 70 years; instead of zeppelins soaring over a battlefield, they saw a beautiful city lit up by the sun and clear blue skies.<br/><br/>"I'm sure somewhere in this city, is the one with the courage and sense of responsibility to wield our power."<br/><br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <strong> <span class="u">TWO DAYS LATER</span> </strong>
</p><p>Within the pink walls of a bedroom attic an alarm clock app of a phone blared for twenty minutes straight as a young; blue haired girl was fast asleep in her bed. The girl grumbled and mumbled as she instinctively fought against the alarm, pressing her face against the pillow to fight off the noise. In the end the alarm clock won, and the girl finally opened her eyes. She sat up yawning; stretching out her arms as she grabbed her phone and checked the time. The girl stared at the time for a couple seconds, seeing that it was 8:20 AM. She continued to stare at the numbers on the screen curiously; feeling as though there was something weird about the time that was being shown.<br/><br/>"......AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" The girl screamed at the top of her lungs so loud that the entire planet must have heard her panicked cry. "I'M GONNA BE LATE!" The girl sprang up from her bed and darted all over the room in a frantic search for her clothes and school supplies. The girl wrestled with her own clothes; hastily putting on her shirt and falling on the floor from tripping over her pants. Once the girl managed to put her pants and shoes the trapdoor to her room opened, revealing a mustached man with a large build and a short; blue haired woman having half-entered.<br/><br/>"Marinette dear what happened?" The blue haired woman asked.<br/><br/>"We heard your scream from the bakery! Is everything all right?" The big man asked.<br/><br/>"Everything is not okay! School starts in fifteen minutes!" Marinette exclaimed as she put on her jacket. Marinette's parents both slowly turned to the digital clock on the work desk, seeing that it was now 8:21 AM.<br/><br/>"....AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" The parents exclaimed as they darted around the room to make sure Marinette had everything she needed.<br/><br/>"Tom! Get the macaroons ready!" The mother said as she darted up and began helping Marinette with her hair. Tom immediately darted for their bakery two floors down. "I am so sorry! Your father and I had a sudden influx of orders and it slipped our minds!" She said, the bakery downstairs had more customers than it usually does in the morning.<br/><br/>"It's fine mom, as long as I don't let myself get distracted I'll be in class right before the bell rings," Marinette declared, but her determination dissipated as she gave out a long sigh. "And I'm sure Chloe will happy to see me."<br/><br/>"Chloe? Four years in a row-is that even possible?" Marinette's mother asked, already amazed by the three-year streak of her daughter's bully ending up in the same class.<br/><br/>"Definitely... Lucky me!" Marinette said in a sarcastic tone.<br/><br/>Sabine looked at her daughter with a concerned mien once she finished her pigtails. "Marinette you know that if that girl is too much you can transfer to a different class if you need to."<br/><br/>"It's alright mom. Chloe may be a handful, but I won't let her separate me from my friends," Marinette said with a small smile, only for said smile to quickly die when she reached for her book bag and accidentally knocked it over. All the supplies fell out while the rest of the perfume bottles, hairsprays, and crafting materials on her dresser were knocked down via an absurd domino effect. Marinette quickly put all the supplies back in the backpack before putting it on. her mother placed a hand on her shoulder before she could make a break for school.<br/><br/>"Have a great day at school honey; I'm sure everything will be just fine." Sabine said, making her daughter smile.<br/><br/>"Thanks mom," Marinette said as she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before heading downstairs. When she got down to the bakery, she saw her father holding a rectangular box, and one it was the new logo for the bakery.<br/><br/>"Lalalala-LALA!" Tom sang as he opened the rectangular box; revealing delicious macaroons.<br/><br/>"Dad! These are so awesome!" Marinette exclaimed as saw the intricate designs, the bakery logo also on the macaroons. "You're the best!"<br/><br/>"We're the best, thanks to your amazing design," Tom said proudly as he grabbed a sketchbook from the counter, opening it to reveal a sketch of the new bakery logo that Marinette had drawn.<br/><br/>Marinette gave a big smile before jumping up and hugging her father. The sudden gesture made Tom drop the box of treats, but luckily, he caught it with his foot; then he kicked the box up in the air and caught it safely in his hands. Marinette took the box and gave her father a kiss on the cheek before exiting the bakery.<br/><br/>Marinette looked up to the bright sky as she stopped before the crosswalk, waiting for her turn to cross the street. "Alright Marinette, the school is literally a crosswalk away because you have lived next to it since forever, just don't get distracted." Marinette continued to repeat that last part to herself over and over as she crossed the street hastily. However, as soon as she made it to the otherside, her attention was caught by the sound of a crying child. She turned and saw that a little boy had dropped his ice-cream while his mother tried to calm him down.<br/><br/>"Aww, dropped your ice-cream little guy?" Marinette said as she walked over to the boy. She opened the box and presented the boy with her macaroons. "Here, these are much more delicious than ice-cream." Marinette smiled as she gave the boy one of her treats. The boy's tears quickly stopped as he tasted the pastry, his face beaming from the delicious flavor.<br/><br/>"Thank you so much, he would have kept crying for the entire walk to his preschool," The mother said with relief. Marinette's eyes shot wide with terror as she realized she got distracted again.<br/><br/>"AH! School! I'm gonna be late!" Marinette exclaimed as she ran off in a panic.<br/><br/>"Alright Marinette the steps are right there, just walk up th-OH COME ON!!!" Marinette exclaimed as from the corner of her eye she witnessed a man loitering on the steps having thrown a juice box at a trash can and missing the shot. Marinette stomped over to the trash been and put the juice box inside. Marinette then angrily turned to the loitering man; giving him a scolding look. "Is it really that hard to just walk up to the trash instead of littering!?" Marinette said, giving an annoyed groan when the man just carelessly shrugged.<br/><br/>Marinette gave a deep breath, letting her anger go and trying to once again put her focus on the task at hand. The steps were right in front of her, all she needed to do was put her foot forward and walk up those steps. Marinette put her foot forward, and immediately was knocked back by a man in a green tracksuit and ski-mask. Marinette for a moment noticed that he had a strange looking box in his hands, but she didn't have time to process it as she was tripping over herself while bouncing a box of macaroons between her hands. Unfortunately, Marinette tripped over herself and the box of precious macaroons fell into the trash. Marinette got back up and gave a sorrowful whine as she saw the box of Macaroons bent and crushed from the drop, tainted by dirty trash, juices, and cigarette ash.<br/><br/>"NO! STOP THAT MAN!" Marinette turned to see an elderly Asian man in a red Hawaiian shirt on his knees. Marinette gasped and immediately helped the man up on his feet and handed him his cane.<br/><br/>"Are you okay sir!? What happened?" Marinette asked urgently, hoping that none of the old man's bones were broken.<br/><br/>"That man in the tracksuit stole the mir-my jewelry box!" The old man explained, his face filled with distress. "Did you see anything on that man that we could use to identify the authorities? Like a tattoo?"<br/><br/>"Oh-I-umm..." Marinette was slightly taken aback by the proactive question. Marinette had only a split second to see him, but she remembered that all his skin was covered by the tracksuit, gloves, and ski-mask. "S-Sorry sir, but he was completely covered, and the tracksuit wasn't anything out of the ordinary either." Marinette answered.<br/><br/>"This can't be... I've doomed us all..." The old man looked like he was about to have a heart attack; Marinette figured whatever was in that box must have been important to him. Marinette looked up at the school's steps and entrance, and then back at the distressed old man. Marinette tried to tell herself that she needed to get to class, but what of the old man? What if the jewelry in that box was a gift from a loved one, a family heirloom, or even a gift for someone's grave?<br/><br/>"Don't worry sir," Marinette said as she turned to the direction the thief ran to. "I'll get your jewelry box back!" Marinette declared.<br/><br/>"Wait don't!" Before the old man could stop Marinette, the girl had already sprinted after the thief.<br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <strong> <span class="u">20 MINUTES EARLIER</span> </strong>
</p><p>In Agreste manor a blonde boy was eating breakfast alone in the dining room. The boy had been long accustomed to the mundane atmosphere of the mansion, though it didn't make it any less torturous. When the boy finished his breakfast, he sat up and walked over to one of the windows behind him. He could barely see the buildings outside due to the massive walls and front gate, but through the bars of the gate he could see people walking by and stray cats loitering around. What really caught his eye were the kids his age walking by with their backpacks, most of them making their way to College Francoise Dupont for the first day of school. The boy wished that he could just run past those gates and walk alongside those kids as peers, but alas he couldn't... not yet. The boy's attention was taken from the front gates and to the door next to him opening; revealing a tall woman with glasses and a business suit.<br/><br/>"Adrien, have you finished your breakfast?" The woman asked; her posture akin to a soldier and her voice sounding almost robotic.<br/><br/>"Yes Nathalie," Adrien answered with a sorrowful; bored mien.<br/><br/>Nathalie stepped aside allowing Adrien to walk out of the dining room. "Remember that yo-"<br/><br/>"Piano lessons start in two hours, and I have a photo shoot tomorrow," Adrien said. Having heard his schedule be told to him over and over for years made Nathalie's words all the more predictable.  Adrien stopped and turned to Nathalie, who didn't seem all that phased by her sentence being cutoff. "Is father going to be present for lunch?"<br/><br/>Nathalie's facial expression remained unchanged, expect for her eyes ever so slightly looking away from the boy before her. "Your father is busy with work, and he has a meeting scheduled for the afternoon..."<br/><br/>"So he won't be around for dinner either... figures," Adrien said disappointingly before making his way to his room. Adrien's room was every teenager's dream: a two-story room with a library; rock climbing; Foosball; arcade machines; basketball net; a high-end flat screen with every single console known to man. Despite that however, the vast amount of entertainment at his disposal could only prolong his loneliness and feelings of captivity for so long; they were pretty much just time killers until his next photo-shoot or piano lesson.<br/><br/>Adrien walked over to his desk next to his bed and grabbed a photo of a woman with blonde hair and green eyes just like his own. Looking at the photo Adrien reminisced of simpler times; times when he wasn't alone, when he wasn't burdened by the Agreste brand, when his mother wouldn't leave his side, and when his father's smile never faltered. Adrien was taken from his trance when he felt his phone in his pocket vibrate. He placed the photo back on his desk and pulled out his phone, seeing that he had received a text.<br/><br/>Chloe: Adrikins! ur going to come to school, today right? &lt;3<br/><br/>Chloe: I got ur name in the system (don't ask how), and before u say it, I already know that I'm amazing :)<br/><br/>Adrien turned his head to his window, gazing at the bright blue sky. For so much of his life the mansion he lived in felt like a prison-and today was the day he would break out. With a determined look in his eyes Adrien turned back to his phone and began typing.<br/><br/></p><p>Adrien: You bet; it may take some time though.</p><p>Chloe: Perfect! Can't wait for us to finally be in school together Adrikins &lt;3.<br/><br/>Chloe: Oh, and Sabrina says she can't wait 2.<br/><br/>With that Adrien put his phone in his pocket, grabbed his handbag and began to put school supplies such as pencils and notebooks inside. Adrien slung the bag over his shoulder, and he exited his room. Since Nathalie was assisting his father with work Adrien had a clear path to the front door and to the front gates. When he arrived at the gates, he began to firmly place his hands on the stone beside it. Normally the gates would have to be opened from within the mansion, either from his father's office or Nathalie's tablet, but Adrien remembered that when he was seven years old a thief had broken into the mansion. His mother immediately grabbed him and fled to the gates, and within the stone wall was a secret emergency button that would open the gates. As Adrien pressed into random spots in the wall, he finally felt his hand push into the wall, and the gates opened.<br/><br/>Without wasting any time Adrien dashed past the gates and out into the streets. Knowing his father probably already caught wind of what was going on Adrien ran without any signs of slowing down. After a couple minutes of running; taking whatever shortcuts he could find Adrien finally saw the school just past a bakery. Adrien made a final sprint like a soldier escaping crossfire; making sure to not accidentally bump into anyone. His dream of new friends and freedom was just a few blocks away, all he had to do was keep ru-<br/><br/>"Get out of the way!" A man in a green tracksuit exclaimed as he shoved Adrien against a wall before continuing to run past him.<br/><br/>"Ow! Hey! what was that for!?" Adrien exclaimed, rubbing his pained shoulder. Before he could return to running towards the school, a blue haired girl had rammed against him; knocking them both to the ground. "Why do people keep running into me!?" He asked after having landed flat on his back.<br/><br/>"Sorry about that!" Marinette said as she got up and offered her hand to Adrien. The blonde took the blunette's hand, allowing her to help him up.<br/><br/>"Miss! Wait!" Adrien and Marinette turned to see an old man having ran towards them; Marinette seeming shocked by how quickly the short man managed to catch up with her. The old man looked distressed as he turned to Marinette. "I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but that man has a-"<br/><br/>"I know, but that's not gonna stop me from catching him!" Marinette said; cutting off the old man and leaving him stunned before she returned to chasing the thief. <br/><br/>Adrien turned to the out of breath old man with a mix of curiosity and concern. "Are you okay sir? What's going on?"<br/><br/>"A man stole my jewelry box and that girl is chasing after him for me, but if she manages to catch him, she could be gravely hurt!" The old man explained.<br/><br/>Adrien looked at the direction and back to the school, his dream was literally just a crosswalk away, but... "I hate to cut class, but I can't let her take that crook on alone!" Adrien said as he crouched down and turned his head to the old man. "Think you can handle a bumpy ride?"<br/><br/>The old man gave a determined nod before hopping on Adrien's back and allowing himself to be carried by the blonde.<br/><br/>As Adrien began to run after them, Marinette was closing in on the thief's tail.<br/><br/>"What the hell!? How is this kid so fast!?" The thief exclaimed as he kept turning around different blocks; looking behind him to see that Marinette showed no signs of slowing down. After a couple more turns the thief entered and alley way and found himself with his back against a wall that was too tall to climb. The man breathed heavily; under his ski-mask was a surprised mien caused by the sight of the girl having cornered him. "I'll admit, I'm impressed kid. How did a scrawny; clumsy girl like you manage to keep up with me?"<br/><br/>Marinette gave a couple of tired breaths before answering. "Let's just say constantly being late to school and events helped me build stamina," Marinette answered before wiping some sweat from her forehead <br/><br/>"Yeah, well the chase ends here," The thief said as reached in his back pocket with his free hand and pulled out a large knife. The thief was surprised to see that despite Marinette didn't seem to be pleading for safety or running for her life, though she was clearly alerted by the knife's presence. "You can either run back to class or get in the way of my knife, your choice."<br/><br/>Marinette growled as she looked around the alleyway. The colors of the world dulled in her mind as she focused on whatever could help her, and she mentally highlighted a trashcan right next to her. Marinette moved behind a trashcan the trashcan like she was using it for cover and gave the thief a clear path. "You won’t get away with this!" She declared.<br/><br/>"And yet here I am getting away!" The thief chuckled before running through the alleyway.<br/><br/>As soon as the thief came close enough, Marinette took off the lid of the trashcan and knocked it down, the can's contents spilling out. The thief however anticipated this and hopped over the attempt to stop him.<br/><br/>"Predictable!" The thief exclaimed before turning to Marinette with the momentum from the dodge. "You had your chance!" The thief moved forward to try to stab Marinette in the face, but instead the knife came in contact with metal. Marinette had used the lid of the trash can as a shield, stopping the knife from just barely piercing her chest. The thief was taken aback but quickly adapted; he pushed his hand against the lid to pin Marinette against the wall, and then he pulled his knife from the lid and spun it before preparing to shank her in the stomach.<br/><br/>"Stop!" The thief turned to whomever yelled and was too slow to react to Adrien jump kicking him in the stomach, knocking him on the ground.<br/><br/>Adrien turned to Marinette and offered her his hand. Marinette looked at him with awe, as she slowly took his hand. "Are you okay?" Adrien asked as he helped her up.<br/><br/>Marinette starred at the boy with a look of awe, the way he ran at the thief and kicked him replaying in her mind. However, Marinette quickly noticed that the blonde gave her a strange look, and realized she had been starring. "Oh! Y-Yeah, I'm alright!" Marinette answered half-awkwardly.<br/><br/>"Good because that was reckless of you!" A third voice said. Marinette was surprised to see the old man from earlier hop off from Adrien's back with a scolding look. "You knew that man had a knife, and yet you still... you still chased after him despite the dangers..." The old man said, his anger turning into intrigue as he finished his sentence.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry sir, I-"<br/><br/>"Okay, now I'm pissed!" The thief exclaimed, cutting off Marinette as he got back up and readied his knife. Adrien and Marinette were taken aback by the murderous look in the thief's eyes, and the deathly grip he had on his knife.<br/><br/>"Look, what you two are doing is admirable, but let us retreat and alert the authorities!" The old man urged as he slowly walked back.<br/><br/>Even Marinette began to consider the old man's orders as she held her lid shield up. Risking her own safety was one thing but she wasn't sure if she could bare others being hurt in her place.<br/><br/>"And let this crook get away!? No chance!" Adrien exclaimed as he charged at the man, the thief doing the same towards him.<br/><br/>"NO!" Marinette exclaimed as she grabbed onto Adrien's shoulder and pulled him back as the knife was thrust towards the middle of his chest. Adrien was pulled back just enough for the knife to only tap his shirt, and before it could pierce his skin Marinette swung her trash lid and struck the thief in the head; forcing him a couple steps back. While the thief was stunned Marinett looked around the alleyway for anything that could help. The colors of the world dulled in her mind as she looked for anything useful, she mentally highlighted a broom that was on the ground, and then looked at her own lid shield.<br/><br/>"Here, take this!" Marinette said as she grabbed the broom from the ground and tossed it to Adrien. The boy caught the broom as Marinette ran up to his side and turned to the thief with a battle stance.<br/><br/>"Umm...I'm sorry but how is a broom going to help me beat a guy with a knife?" Adrien asked with a confused mien.<br/><br/>"His knife is big, but that broom is longer, use it to hit him from a distance while I use this lid as a shield," Marinette explained as the thief recovered from his stunned state.<br/><br/>"Ah, I get it now," Adrien said as he broke the bottom part of the broom and left himself with just the wooden pole. "Never thought I'd ever use my fencing in a real fight," He said before entering into a fencing stance.<br/><br/>The thief stared down the teenagers before him, everyone readying themselves like an old western standoff, every gunslinger steadying their trigger fingers. Finally, the thief pulled the first trigger; sprinting forward as his opponents followed suit. The thief sped toward Marinette first, seeing her as the weaker target, and as he did so Adrien thrust the broom against his abdomen. The thief tanked the attack as Marinette continued to move forward. The thief swung his knife at Marinette and was met by the girl swing the trash lid to parry his attack. The thief's arm was knocked back by the parry and provided an opening for Adrien to send a flurry of thrusts all over the thief's chest.<br/><br/>The thief was knocked further back as Adrien continued the pressure. Adrien's fencing experience made the broom deal good damage against the thief, but it was no blade. The thief let go of the jewelry box and managed to catch the broom as Adrien overextended his pressure; following it through with a raise of the knife and a downward drop aimed at the blonde's neck. Before the blade could fatally hit its target, the thief was hit in the head and stunned by a garbage lid thrown by Marinette. The thief was left stunned for a couple seconds, but just as soon he was about to recover, he was hit in the nose by a thrown broom stick. The thief held onto his nose which had begun to bleed and stain his ski-mask, angrily moaning from the pain as he recovered.<br/><br/>Once the thief managed to open his eyes and look up, he saw both Adrien and Marinette holding up a trashcan over their shoulders. After letting out a battle cry, they both threw the trashcan at the thief, hitting him in the head and knocking him out cold.<br/><br/>Marinette walked over and retrieved the wooden box. "Here you go sir!" Marinette smiled as she gave the old man his jewelry box back.<br/><br/>"Thank you miss!" The old man said, relieved to have his jewelry box returned to him. "How could I ever repay you?"<br/><br/>Marinette shook her head in response. "No repayment needed, I'm just glad I was able to help."<br/><br/>"That was amazing, you really saved my neck out there," Adrien said as he walked beside Marinette. The blunette's cheeks went crimson as she heard the blonde's praises.<br/><br/>"What!? N-No-you were doing most of the walk-I mean work! Wow I cannot speak French today, sorry," Marinette said with a nervous chuckle.<br/><br/>"Both of you performed quite exceptionally, where did you learn how to fight?" The old man asked, catching the attention of the teenagers.<br/><br/>"My father had me take fencing classes, and not to brag but I may have won some tournaments," Adrien said with a cheeky smile.<br/><br/>"See! You DID do most of the work!" Marinette said with a hyperbolic pout.<br/><br/>Adrien chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Well yeah, I guess I did dish out a lot of hits, but you still saved me from being stabbed twice. Speaking of which, where did <em>you</em> learn how to fight like that?"<br/><br/>Marinette's eyes widened and blinked as she was taken aback by the question. "Wait, me? I'm not a fighter, I just looked around for whatever was useful and... I guess everything else was just instinct."<br/> <br/>"Interesting," The old man said, smiling as he stroked his beard. "Well I must be off, I hope you have a fine first day of school," the old man said as he walked away.<br/><br/>Both teenagers were left speechless at the old man's last word; their eyes frozen in shocked as they remembered what day it was.<br/><br/>"I'M GONNA BE LATE!"<br/><br/>"I'M GONNA BE LATE!"<br/><br/>Marinette and Adrien immediately sprinted at maximum speed towards the school. Retracing their steps College Francoise Dupont quickly came into view.<br/><br/>"You go to Francoise Dupont? No wonder you look familiar," Marinette asked, feeling her nerves from the boy's presence being calmed from the threat of being late to class.<br/><br/>"Nope! This is my first year actually," Adrien answered with a gleeful smile.<br/><br/>"Really? Well in that case, my name is Marinette!" The blunette introduced herself as they passed her parent's bakery and crossed the street. "What's yours?"<br/><br/>Adrien's eyes shimmered as he turned towards Marinette with a look of awe. This was it; Adrien was going to make his first new friend since he was a kid, just an introduction away. Adrien smiled brightly as he kept his eyes on Marinette.<br/><br/>"My name is Adr-" Before Adrien could finish his name, he and Marinette collided with something massive. They both managed to stand their ground, and slowly backed away to see what they had ran into.<br/><br/>Marinette looked up and saw what she almost mistook for a large; hairless gorilla in a dark suit. Marinette was in fearful shock as she slowly backed away from the intimidating man, only to bump into someone else behind her. Marinette slowly turned around to see a tall women in a similar suit and glasses looked down on her with a death glare that sent shivers down Marinette's spine.<br/><br/>"AH! Who are you!? Mafia!? Assassins!? Super villains!? Please don't kill us!?" Marinette exclaimed as her imagination ran wild, feeling as though she was about to be either murdered or kidnapped. The tall women continued to scrutinize Marinette, making the girl feel like she was going to die from the glare alone.<br/><br/>"You must be another delusional fan, please leave, or else I will have to remove you myself," The women said with a cold tone as she placed a hand on the blunette's shoulder with an intimidating grip. <br/><br/>"Wait! Nathalie, she isn't like that!" Adrien said as he turned to the tall women. Marinette turned to Adrien with surprise, despite the confusion she felt a little more at ease that he seemed to know these people. "We just happened to cross paths; she doesn't even recognize me!"<br/><br/>Nathalie tilted her head curiously. "Is that so?" She said before turning her attention to Marinette. "Miss, are you familiar with the Agreste clothing brand?"<br/><br/>Marinette blinked for a moment before answering. "Y-You mean Gabriel Agreste. Yeah, he's actually one of my biggest inspirations..." After answering, Marinette turned to Adrien as he began to appear more and more familiar. Finally, her eyes widened in shock and awe as she realized who this boy was.<br/><br/>"Oh my god! You're his son!" Marinette said, remembering the fashion magazines that he had appeared in. "Wow! I-I can't believe it!" Marinette felt ecstatic, by some twist of face the son of her idol had saved her life, and vice versa. She turned to Adrien with a look of respect and humility. "What are the choices-I-I-mean chances? It's an honor to meet you!" Marinette said as she tried to control her nervous stammering. Despite how happy she seemed, her delighted mien turned into a worried one when she noticed Adrien's somber; disappointed face, like a child who was told Santa Claus wasn't real.<br/><br/>"Right... it was nice to meet you too..." Adrien said before entering the limo; his bodyguard closing the door and entering the driver seat. Nathalie gave a deep breath, letting her cold guard down slightly as she felt pity for the boy.<br/><br/>"Wait, did I do something wrong?" Marinette asked Nathalie before she entered the limo. Nathalie turned to the girl with a softer; understanding stare.<br/><br/>"It isn't your fault, it is simply the natural order of things," Nathalie said. Silence followed as Nathalie took a glance at her watch before looking back at Marinette who still looked confused and remorseful. "Aren't you late for class?"<br/><br/>When Marinette heard those words, her heart stopped for a moment as she checked the time on her phone. "Crap! Roll call is almost finished!" Marinette exclaimed before looking back at Nathalie. "Sorry for causing any trouble, goodbye!" Marinette said before sprinting back to class.<br/><br/>"Hm... strange girl," Nathalie said as she grabbed the door handle to the passenger seat of the limousine. She opened the door and entered as a dark violet moth flew freely, floating about before entering the school.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Miraculous: Protectors of Paris!<br/>I've had the idea of a rewrite AU for a long time, but it hadn't been until recently I had finally connected the pieces together and found out how to go about writing this fic!</p><p>Notes:</p><p>*Nooroo and Duusu are not in the hands of Gabriel and Nathalie! Well for those wondering, yes the villain is still the same Hawkmoth we have all come to know, but the source of his power is... different this time around. For those wondering how the butterfly miraculous and peacock miraculous will function in the hands of our heroes, you'll just have to wait and see ;)</p><p>*I decided to swap Duusu and Trixx's genders in this fic. Duusu I decided to change because of her being a peacock, and considering that the flashy feathers are adorned by males, I figured it would make more sense for Duusu to be a guy in this fic; as for Trixx, I had been reading a fic that had him as a girl so it kinda just stuck with me.</p><p>*I decided to change up how they encounter Master Fu. I felt this change was not only a little more meaningful than simply helping out someone that fell down (which is kinda just common curtesy) and also him almost getting run over by a car (which while brave of Marinette in canon I felt had a lot of outside factors like reaction times as well as distance from Fu that could be taken into consideration when hyper analyzed). Having Marinette and Adrien chase after a thief who had stolen a very important something from the elderly man was not only a more premeditated and courageous way for Master Fu to deem them worthy, also it made for a fun little fight scene and a fun way for Marinette and Adrien to first meet.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. First Day of School</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a morning filled with clear skies as a woman with reddish-orange hair entered the College Francoise Dupont. Caline Bustier walked up a metal stair case which lead to the second floor, the tall woman wearing a happy smile as she couldn't wait to see her students again. Once the teacher made it to the second floor, she was surprised to see two students were already waiting outside the classroom. The first was Chloe, a girl with blonde hair tied in a ponytail who was on her phone scrolling through social media; the second was Sabrina, a girl with orange hair and glasses conversing with the former.<br/><br/>"Good morning girls! I'm surprised you're here so early," Caline said with a welcoming smile as she took out her keys and unlocked the door to her classroom.<br/><br/>"Uh, of course I'd be here! This is the most important day of my life!" Chloe said, surprising Caline with her seemingly joyous declaration.<br/><br/>"Really? It makes me happy to hear you're so excited for school!" Caline said with a proud smile. It was unlike Chloe to care about education, but as a passionate teacher she was delighted to see one of her students excited and ready to learn.<br/><br/>"School? Ugh, no, this place is still a bore," Chloe said while making a disgusted and irritated mien before entering the classroom. "This year will just be less of a slog than usual."<br/><br/>"O-Oh..." Caline said awkwardly as her pride as a teacher was shattered, trying and failing to smile through the pain and heartbreak she felt.<br/><br/>The awkward silence that followed caused Sabrina to give a nervous chuckle as she followed Chloe; stopping in front of Caline. "What Chloe means to say is that a close friend of ours will be attending our class this year. We haven't been able to see him much in a long time so this is a pretty big day for us."<br/><br/>Caline Bustier gave a confused mien as she walked to her desk and set her suit case upon it. "Really? That's strange, I don't remember seeing the name of any new boys in the student lineup for this class. I know a new girl will be attending the class tho-<br/><br/>"Excuse me!?" Chloe exclaimed as she looked away from her phone and glared at her teacher with an almost murderous aura. "Some bells better be ringing soon or e-hhhmphhhmphm!"<br/><br/>Sabrina was quick to press her hand against Chloe's mouth before she could say anything that could get her into inescapable trouble. Once Chloe finished her muffled comment she finally noticed Sabrina's hand over her mouth and swatted it away. Sabrina turned to Caline with a nervous; apologetic laugh as she put both her hands on Chloe's shoulders and guided the blonde and herself to their seats.<br/><br/><em>"What am I going to do with that girl"</em>,  Caline thought to herself with a sigh as she opened up her suit case and took out various papers, documents, and other supplies she would use for the class. Once that was done Claine turned to her side to suddenly see a tall; pale girl with long black hair with dyed violet tips before her. "Ah!" Caline exclaimed as she jumped back from shock, only to then realize that the girl was a normal teenager. "Oh, my apologies, I didn't notice you there," Caline said with a softer mine.<br/><br/>"No one does," The girl said as she avoided eye contact.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that,"  Caline said, the girl having spoken to quietly for her to hear.<br/><br/>"It's nothing, I just wanted to make sure you knew I was here before rollcall," Juleka said as she briefly fiddled with the hair over her left eye.<br/><br/>Caline scanned the shy girl before her; not recognizing her from previous years, meaning she was either a new student or was from a different class. "I see, well I'll be sure to mark you present. Is this your first time attending this school?" Caline asked with a bright, welcoming smile.<br/><br/>Suddenly the girl's already shy mien grew more somber. "I...I was in your class last year..." Juleka said as she rubbed her right arm shyly.<br/><br/>Caline's eyes widened in surprise, in all her years of teaching never before had she forgotten the presence of one of her students. "Oh! Of course, my mistake... um..." A dreadfully awkward silence fell between the two as Caline had all but forgotten what the name of the girl before her was. <em>"Okay, you can do this! She was one of the students you taught last year, surely you could remember her name!"</em>  A drop of nervous sweat slid down the side of Caline's head as she tried her hardest to remember the girl's name.<em> "Right, she was tall among the girls, but was very shy and kept to herself most of the time. Jessica? Julia? Dammit Caline! What kind of teacher doesn't remember their student's own na-"</em><br/><br/>"Juleka Couffaine," the girl said as, breaking the awkward silence. "It's fine, I'm used to it..." Juleka turned and walked over to the farthest back seat in the class next to a map of France.<br/><br/>Caline looked onward with a sense of defeat, feeling her pride as a teacher crack once again that morning. Before Caline could dwell any further on her failures, the classroom door suddenly burst open as a tall boy in a red hooded sweater and a girl with pink hair has sprinted into the room and skidded to a halt.<br/><br/>"Alright! First score of the year goes to the Kimster!" The boy in the red sweater exclaimed as he wiped a large quantity of sweat from his forehead.<br/><br/>"First of all, that is the cringiest nickname I've ever heard. Second, <em>I</em> got here first," The girl with pink hair said with tired breathing as she too wiped the sweat from her forehead.<br/><br/>"No way Alex, I got past the door first!" Kim said in between heavy breaths.<br/><br/>The two rivals continued to bicker about who had won the race, until quickly realizing that their biases would leave them at an impasse.<br/><br/>"You know what, we aren't getting anywhere. Let's ask Ms. Bustier if she saw who got in first," Alix proposed.<br/><br/>"Good idea. Yo teach, did you see who got in fiiiiiiirrrrrrssssst," Kim and Alix were left dead silent as Caline stared at them with a cold, deathly glare that was somehow more intimidating than even the infamous Ms. Mendeleiev. They felt like their souls were being held hostage by daggers; the two rivals exchanged quick glances at each other before immediately sprinting out the classroom and slamming the door shut. Caline continued to stare at the door, and after a couple of seconds the door opened followed by Aix and Kim more steadily walking into the room. The two athletes could feel the soul piercing gaze from Ms. Bustier as they walked towards their desired seats. It wasn't until they had sat down that their teacher's mien finally softened.<br/><br/>"I understand you two like to challenge each other, but can you please keep your challenges and dares outside the classroom this year?" Caline asked with a pleading mien. "We don't want a repeat of the "bookshelf" incident last year now do we?"<br/><br/>"Please don't remind me, I can still feel the phantom pain from that stunt." Everyone turned to the classroom door to see a small kid with dark skin, glasses, green shirt and suspenders walked into the classroom. "Good morning Ms. Bustier."<br/><br/>"Good morning Max," Caline replied with a welcoming smile.<br/><br/>Suddenly Chloe began to laugh as she just remembered the incident Max was referring to. "Oh! That was hilarious, you were in a cast for a whole month!" <br/><br/>"Month and two weeks. I see you still haven't changed Chloe," The boy said to Chloe as he pushed up his glasses.<br/><br/>"Haven't changed? You say it like it's a bad thing," Chloe said with a condescending smirk.<br/><br/>Max rolled his eyes before walking up to sit next to Kim. <br/><br/>After some minutes had passed more kids began to enter the classroom and take their seats. A red headed boy named Nathaniel Kurtzburg, who seemed to give Chloe a stink eye before continuing to walk up to the back of the class. Juleka looked at the boy with curiosity as he seemed to move closer to her, but the girl sighed in disappointment as the boy took a seat on the opposite side without noticing her.<br/><br/>The next person to walk in was a fair skinned petite girl named Mylene Heprele who had blonde hair ending in dreads; some of the dreads were dyed pink, blue and green; as well as a pink bandana holding her hair back. At the sight of Chloe, Mylene had a look of sheer fear, saying good morning to the teacher as a means to keep her eye-sight away from the spoiled blonde as she walked up and sat next to Alix.<br/><br/>Another minute passed and a boy with dark skin, a blue shirt, red cap, glasses and orange headphones named Nino Lahiffe walked into the class room. Juleka noticed the boy, and kept her eyes on him as he walked up the steps to the further back seats. Due to the angle Nino's eyes were obscured by his red cap, which increased the sense of desperate anticipation as the boy got ever so closer to her table. Juleka stared at the boy's hand intensely as he set it on the desk, set his bag on the floor, and took a seat.<br/><br/>Nino put his headphones on and listened to music playing from his phone, lowering his cap further over his eyes as he zoned out to one of his recently made remix tracks. <em>"Dam, I think I made a banger with this one. But... no, wait, the base sounds off at the two minute mark,"</em> Nino thought to himself as he reviewed his track. It was a remix of a song made by Jagged Stoned called rocker in the wild, and he had been working on a party remix version of it for about a week. As Nino took out his notebook to take notes of what changes he should make for his remix, he felt the sudden presence that someone was watching him... <strong>intensely</strong> watching him.<br/><br/><em>"Noticemenoticemenoticemenoticemenoticemenoticeme," </em>Juleka thought to herself as she stared at Nino with eyes craving for human contact. The boy was searching for an ominous presence allover the classroom, but he just so happened to look at everything except Juleka, not even noticing her. However, finally after Nino glanced towards Nathaniel's direction did his head begin to turn the opposite way. Juleka's silent plea grew louder as she could just barely see the edge of Nino's eyes turn towards her. Just another moment more and Juleka would finally make meaningful eye conta-<br/><br/>"Nino, why don't you sit in the front of the class this year?" Caline asked.<br/><br/><em>"DAAAAAAMMIIIIIIT!"  </em>Juleka cried mentally as Nino gave an annoyed sigh and got up, never once noticing Juleka's presence.<br/><br/>Nino walked down and sat in the seat in front of Chloe's.<br/><br/>"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Chloe asked in a demanding tone as; looking down at Nino like a tyrannical queen.</p><p>Nino looked back at Chloe with annoyed voice that had  "great what is it now" written allover it. "I'm sitting in a seat?" Nino answered.<br/><br/>"Not just any seat, you are sitting in Adrien's seat! So how about you scoot your poor tush over to the other side!?" Chloe demanded in a hushed tone so that Ms. Bustier couldn't hear her.<br/><br/>"Who the heck is Adrien?" Nino asked with an annoyed mien.<br/><br/>Chloe stared at Nino with a look of shock. "You don't know who Adrien is!? He's like, the hottest teenage supermodel in all of Paris!" Chloe exclaimed with a little bit of exaggeration.<br/><br/>"Do I look like the kind of guy that reads fashion magazines?"<br/><br/>"Ugh, look, just scoot over. Freaking philistine," Chloe said, muttering that last part under her breath, though Nino still heard her. Desiring to not here Chloe's bratty complaining, Nino scooted over to the other side of the table while subtly flipping off Chloe, the French hand gesture that would be mistaken by American tourists as meaning "okay". Chloe returned the gesture with the American middle finger.<br/><br/>Once Nino finished scooting, he felt someone poke his shoulder. Turning around he saw Sabrina looking at him with an apologetic mien.<br/><br/>"Sorry about Chloe, she's just really anxious about seeing an old friend of ours," Sabrina explained.<br/><br/>"Yeah, I can see that. I'll except the apology once I hear it from the horse's mouth," Nino said with an uncaring look. He had nothing against Sabrina, but her defending Chloe wasn't going to-and never has changed much.<br/><br/>Nino was about to return to reviewing his track, but quickly his attention was caught by two more kids having walked into the classroom. One of them was a large; bulky and intimidating guy with short black hair with a tuft of dyed blonde hair above his forehead. Everyone stared at the guy with a sense of fear from his shear presence as he walked in the middle of class and took his seat. The only two who didn't seem scared were Juleka who always thought his scary vibe was cool-looking, and Mylene who smiled and waved hi towards Ivan with a genuine pleasure to see that they were in the same class. The large boy seemed to slightly blush as he waved hi back, which prompted Kim who sat in the seat across from Ivan to hold back a chuckle before writing something in a piece of paper and hiding it under his own text book for later.<br/><br/>However, while everyone's eyes had been on Ivan, Nino's eyes was caught by the beautiful girl that had entered behind him. She had tanned skin, glasses, plaid short-sleeved shirt, light blue jeans, and wavy reddish-brown hair that grew past her shoulders. The girl walked over to Ms. Bustier, who had just finished organizing her documents. <br/><br/>"Excuse me, are you Ms. Bustier?" The girl asked.<br/><br/>"Yes I am," Ms. Bustier said with a welcoming smile.<br/><br/>"Great, my name is Alya Cesaire. I'm new to the school," she introduced herself as she shook her new teacher's hand.<br/><br/>"It's a pleasure to meet you Alya, don't be afraid to talk to me if you have any questions," Caline said.<br/><br/>Alya turned around and spotted Nino sitting in the front row. Seeing that the boy was cute, Alya figured sitting next to him for the year would be nice. Alya and Nino waved at each other as Alya was about to sit next to him. However as her hand was about to touch the table, Nino's eyes widened in fear and cringe as he knew what was about to happen.<br/><br/>"Nah-ah-ah! Stop right there!" Chloe said right before Alya was about to sit down. "What do you think you're doing?"<br/><br/>"Sitting down?" Alya said, with a confused look.<br/><br/>"Exactly, and that seat is reserved, so go take another one," Chloe said with a rude demand.<br/><br/>Alya seemed taken back before staring at Chloe with a taken aback and angered mien. "Excuse me?"<br/><br/>Sabrina glanced over to the teacher, who looked like she was about to call out Chloe. Before Caline or Alya could call Chloe out, Sabrina leaned herself against Chloe and pushed her far enough to the side to wear the girls' eyes were on her.<br/><br/>"W-What she meant to say was that we are saving that seat for a close friend of ours we haven't seen in a long while," Sabrina explained to Alya with a nervous smile. "If it isn't too much could you please take another seat? We would really appreciate it." Sabrina seemed to keep up an innocent smile, but the small drops of seat made it clear she was silently begging for Alya to let Chloe's rudeness slide.<br/><br/>"Alright, since <strong>you</strong> asked nicely, I'll just sit over here," Alya said to Sabrina. She gave Chloe a dirty look before sitting on the opposite side of the front row seats.<br/><br/>Right then Chloe looked back at Nino, and noticed that he was giving her a dirty look at well. "Got something to say?" Chloe asked as if it were a threat. Nino simply responded by putting his headphones back on and returning to reviewing his songs.<br/><br/>As time passed Chloe continued to scroll through social media on her phone, liking and re-posting various posts and pictures on Instagram. Her fingers and eyes were constantly moving; traversing through each post, that was until her fingers halted as a particular post came into view. It was a post of her mother, a selfie of her inside an airport; according to the comment below she had just landed in New York. Chloe clicked on her mother's icon and opened up direct messaging. The blonde pondered what to type, before grunting and deciding to close the app altogether. After closing the instagram, Chloe's eyes were drawn to the time, and she saw that class was about to start in a literal minute. "Dammit, where is he?" Chloe asked with a worried mien.<br/><br/>Sabrina noticed her friend's nervousness and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, maybe he left some supplies back home? I'm sure he'll be here even if it's a bit late," Chloe said with a reassuring smile.<br/><br/>"Yeah, you're right..." Chloe said with a thankful smile. Despite Sabrina's reassurance, Chloe's worried mien crept back as she looked back at her phone, knowing that if Adrien had forgotten something he could just borrow her supplies instead of risking capture. Unfortunately for Chloe, the seat before her would stay vacant as the school bell rung.<br/><br/>"Alright everyone, for those who haven't had me yet my name is Caline Bustier, and I'll be your homeroom teacher!" Caline said before starting roll call. As Caline listed off the names three students were marked absent. Adrien Agreste, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and Rose Lavillant.<br/><br/>"Okay, so now let's start off with-"<br/><br/>"I'm here!!!" Marinette exclaimed as she burst through the door and fell face first on the floor.<br/><br/>"Marinette! Are you okay?" Caline asked as she helped Marinette up from the floor. As she did so she quickly heard Chloe exploding in hysterics, but a swift and intensely stern glance from the teacher silenced the blonde.<br/><br/>"I'm fine, I think my nose is immune at this point," Marinette said as she was surprised that her nose wasn't bleeding, in fact the pain she felt from the point of impact seemed to bizarrely disappear in an instant.<br/><br/>"Just because you're late doesn't mean you have to literally throw yourself into the classroom, please calmly enter next time." Caline said as she checked for injuries.<br/><br/>"Ms. Caline Bustier, Principal Damocles would like to see you in his office," A woman's voice said from the speakers.<br/><br/>"On the first day? Must be urgent," Caline said, curious as to why she the the principal required her presence at the start of class. "Alright everyone, I'll be steping out for a while. In the meantime please converse and take this time to get to know each other," Caline said before exiting the classroom.<br/><br/>"Let me guess, you got inspired and stayed up all night sketching?" Nino asked Marinette, the girl replying with a nervous giggle.<br/><br/>"Yeah, I came across some images of iguanas while scrolling through the internet, and I couldn't help but start sketching different outfit designs!" Marinette said as she pulled her sketch book from her backpack and showed the various sketches to Nino. All of them featured extravagant suits and dress with parts that were inspired by iguana anatomy. Suit that had collars and ties based off of an iguana's dewlap, and long dresses with an iguana's spikes down the back.<br/><br/>"Awesome stuff dude," Nino said, impressed by the pencil work and creativity.<br/><br/>Marinette smiled gleefully from the compliment, proud that someone was already impressed by her work.<br/><br/>"Ugh! Gross, who in their right mind would want to look like an iguana!?" Chloe exclaimed in disgust. "What is it in that poor brain of yours that makes you think people want to wear your freak show outfits?"<br/><br/>Marinette's proud smile shifted into somber pain, as she felt her creative pride damaged by her tormentor.<br/><br/>"Chloe, have you ever seen the stuff Lady Gaga wears?" Nino said to Marinette's defense.<br/><br/>"I thought you weren't into fashion?" Chloe said.<br/><br/>"I've seen her music videos," Nino said while waving his phone, resisting the urge to say "dumbass" at the end.<br/><br/>"Well either way she's the exception, not the rule," Chloe said as Marinette and Nino raised their eyebrow in response, knowing the kind of crazy outfits celebrities sometimes wore.<br/><br/>Marinette walked over to sit next to Nino. "I wouldn't sit there if I were you," Nino said, warning Marinette.<br/><br/>"Why?" Marinette asked with a curious expression.<br/><br/>"Because I have that seat reserved, go find another one," Chloe said with a demanding tone.<br/><br/><em>"Here we go again,"</em>  Marinette thought as the blonde's bratty tone passed through her ears. "Chloe, I've always sat here," Marinette said, having been fond of the seat the previous year, and seeing that most of her classmates from last year sitting in their same spots as well.<br/><br/>"Well too bad, new year means new seats, now buzz off!" Chloe demanded with a bratty venom.<br/><br/>"H-Hold on a second Chloe," Sabrina chimed in. "Why don't we let Marinette sit down in this seat for today, if he comes earlier tomorrow then we can arrange the seats the way we wanted," Sabrina proposed, becoming unsure whether or not Adrien was going to make it to class.<br/><br/>"That's a terrible idea Sabrina!" Chloe said, with noticeably less anger nor venom like with Marinette. "We've worked too hard to set everything up, I'm not gonna let this nobody taint Adrien's seat with her cooties!"<br/><br/><em>"Adrien?"</em>  Marinette thought to herself, as her somber mood had been replaced by curiosity at the mention of the model's name.<br/><br/>"That's it!" Alya exclaimed as she slammed her desk before standing up and stomping over to the bratty blonde. "Being rude to me was strike one! Not apologizing was strike two! And being mean to this sweet girl for no reason is strike three! What the hell is your problem!?"<br/><br/>"Well would you look at that, we've got a do-gooder in our class this year," Chloe said before standing up face-to-face towards Alya. Both girls' angered faces were mere inches apart as their classmates witnessed the tense standoff.<br/><br/>"Do-gooder? Cooties? Are you five!?" Alya asked with irritation as Chloe began to sound more like her twin little sisters.<br/><br/>As the argument continued, Nino was slowly sitting up from his seat. "Hey Mari, we can switch seats if you wa-"<br/><br/>"You stay there!" Alya demanded as she pointed at Nino, causing the boy to swiftly remain seated with a surprised expression that read "yes mam". Alya then directed her pointing finger to Chloe. "And you, when exactly were you elected queen of seats?" Alyas asked as Chloe held back a laugh.<br/><br/>"Queen of seats? And you call me the five year-old!?"</p><p>"Five is being generous!"<br/><br/>"Oooh, you're so scary when you raise your voice," Chloe said in a mocking tone, seeming amused by the girl in front of her. "Please, my mom can do the same, it's gonna take more than a screaming match to make me care about what you have to say."<br/><br/>"Hold on a minute!" Marinette said, breaking the tension between the two girls. "Chloe... the Adrien you just mentioned wouldn't happen to be Adrian Agreste, would he?"<br/><br/>"Uh, of course! We're best friends, and he was supposed to be sitting in that seat three minutes ago!" Chloe exclaimed while angrily pointing to the seat in question. Marinette cringed in pain and pity as she heard Chloe's answer, like if she had witnessed a tough delinquent knock a scrawny kid out cold.<br/><br/>"Chloe, I don't know how to tell you this, but... Adrien isn't coming," Marinette said while she nervously tapped her fingers together.</p><p>"Excuse me?" Chloe said as she stared down Marinette with a cold, tyrannical stare.<br/><br/>Marinette felt like her next words were going to cause Chloe to demand her execution, but it was going to be better to rip the band-aid off now than have her throw a fit later. "I actually crossed paths with Adrian on the way here, and before we could enter the school a big man with huge muscles and a tall scary lady stopped him from going inside and took him back home."<br/><br/>It was then that Chloe's coldness of her stare turned into a burning hatred. "What did you do?" Chloe asked as she stepped into Marinette's personal space. "Adrien should have had enough time to get in the school before that overgrown gorilla could catch-up with him," Chloe said as she grabbed Marinette by the shirt. "What the hell did you do!?" Chloe asked again as Marinette's eyes widened in fear, not expecting Chloe to put her hands on her so suddenly.<br/><br/>As the class felt the tension of a fight brewing, Alya grabbed Chloe's wrist and pulled her away from Marinette. "Don't you dare put your hands on her," Alya said with a ready-to-fight aura around her.<br/><br/>"And what are you going to do? Shoot laser beams from your glasses?" Chloe asked mockingly, her anger now directed towards the new girl.<br/><br/>"Wouldn't you like to know?" Alya said as she took Marinette's hand. "C'mon, she isn't worth the energy," Alya said as she guided Marinette towards the seats on the left side of the front row. The suddenness of the pull made Marinette fall down, but luckily Alya was able to catch her before she could splat face-first again. "Sorry about that," Alya said, as she realized she pulled to hard.<br/><br/>"Oh, it's fine, thanks for the catch," Marinette said as Alya and her sat down.<br/><br/>"I'm worth the energy," Chloe mumbled to herself, grunting as she sat back down.<br/><br/>"Don't worry Chloe, I'm sure we'll figure something out," Sabrina said with a somber mien as she put her hand on Chloe's shoulder, the blonde simply giving a frustrated grunt as her attention returned to her phone.<br/><br/>"Alright, has everyone settled in?" Ms. Bustier asked as she returned to the class as stood behind her desk.<br/><br/>As class started, Alya noticed that Marinette seemed to still be in a down mood. "Chillax girl, no biggie," Alya said to Marinette with a confident, relaxed smile.<br/><br/>"I wish I could handle Chloe like you do," Marinette said. Even though she could tell Alya was new to the school, the fact that she could so readily stand up to Chloe still felt impressive.<br/><br/>"You mean the way Majestia does it," Alya said as she pulled out her phone and show Marinette an image of the her fighting her evil twin sister ignoblia in Times Square, New York with assistance from Knightowl and Sparrow. "She says that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing."<br/><br/>Alya then grabbed Marinette and turned her to Chloe's direction. "And that girl is evil, while we are the good people!" Alya said, turning Marinette back and pointing to herself with her thumb as she said the last part.<br/><br/>"That's easy for you to say, she likes to make my life miserable," Marinette said with a hopeless mien.<br/><br/>"That's because you let her girl! You need more confidence-uh" As Alya was saying something inspirational, she begam to stumble as she realized she hadn't quite caught her name during the situation moments before.<br/><br/>"Marinette, but some of my friends call me Mari for short," Marinette said with a newly bright smile.<br/><br/>"Alya," The confident girl replied with a smile.<br/><br/>Marinette briefly gave sad giggle as she turned to open up her backpack. "Darn, I wish I could offer you my dad's macaroons, if only I didn't-huh!?" As Marinette searched for her supplies, she was shocked to see that the box of macaroons her dad gave her was suddenly in her backpack in perfect condition.<br/><br/>"Is something wrong Mari?" Alya asked as Marinette pulled out the box of Macarons and set them on their desk.<br/><br/>"I don't get it, I thought I dropped these in the trash," Marinette said as she opened up the box, and was flabbergasted to see that all the delicious treats her dad made inside looked nothing like having been dropped and squashed inside a trash bin.<br/><br/>"Mind if I have one?" Alya asked as she smelled the deliciously fresh sent of the treats.<br/><br/>"Of course!" Marinette said as she gave Alya and herself a macaron. Both girls took a bite, and were delighted by the amazing taste.<br/><br/>"This is amazing girl! Why would you ever throw these in the trash?" Alya asked, as she ate the rest of the macaron.<br/><br/>"I-I didn't, I thought I tripped and dropped it," Marinette said as she observed the seemingly perfect macaroon. <em>"Was it just my imagination? No, it couldn't be."</em> <br/><br/>Unfortunately as much as Marinette wanted to crack this mystery, she had no choice to leave the thoughts in her head behind and focus on class. While the class was in session, everyone was steadily adjusting an paying attention to the teacher as she had the class participate in ice-breakers. As this happened, no one noticed an ominous black and violet moth that was crawling through the gaps between the closed door and took flight.<br/><br/><em>"Ah, yes, now who will be the perfect candidate for my debut,"</em>  The one controlling the moth spoke to himself from a location hidden from the world. The mysterious man sensed various negative emotions from the school, kids burdened by the end of vacation, the loathing towards strict teachers, and year long feuds persisting across school years. The moth had traveled around the school, but none of the negative emotions had the intensity that was sought for. That was, until the mysterious man had sensed an extremely intense amount of negative energy coming from Ms. Bustier's classroom. As the moth followed the negative energy to the back of the room, that is when he finally noticed Juleka sitting by her lonesome, seemingly forgotten in the dark corner of the classroom as the other students participated in their ice-breakers.<br/><br/><em>"A-Amazing!"</em> The man exclaimed to himself, baffled by how he almost missed the immense negativity oozing from the goth girl, like a blotch of black paint on a pure white canvas. <em>"Sadness; loneliness; depression; self-loathing; envy; hopelessness..."</em> The man thought about how much power this girl could potentially produce, how much of a threatening force she could be made into. However, as the moth  drew closer to a glove-mounted pendant which opened to reveal a mirror which Juleka used to scrutinize her reflection, the moth backed off and quickly flew out of site before it could be noticed.<br/><br/><em>"No, I mustn't. That much power can't be handled by a novice like myself, though she will make a fine trump card when the time comes,"</em> The man said as the moth flew around in search of more manageable energy. The moth flew around and took notice of Chloe, the blonde seemed to only be willing to converse with Sabrina, not bothering to participate in the ice-breakers with her other classmates. <em>"Hmm... These emotions should definitely suffice, but is she really worthy of my power?"</em> The moth pondered, sensing the emotions within Chloe, the mix of sadness and entitlement caused the man to further investigate. The moth perched on Chloe's shoulder, reading her exact emotions, absorbing the context of her blight.<br/><br/><em>"What!!!?"</em> The man exclaimed as the moth swiftly flew away. <em>"Such inconceivable recklessness!"</em> The man was furious, needing to take a moment to compose himself as the moth hid. <em>"Alright, calm down, she couldn't have known any better."</em> The man ordered the moth to fly off and find another target, the man's conflicted feelings towards the blonde was a strange mix of unworthiness; yet he also felt that he owed her at the same time.<br/><br/><em>"Perhaps I should broaden my horizons,"</em> The man said as he stopped searching for pure sadness and rage, instead looking for more subtle negative emotions. That is when he sensed something brewing nearby, sparks of malicious mischief coming from the tall boy in the red hood. Concentrating more, the man sensed that this mischief seemed to be directed towards the big and brooding Ivan. Intrigued by how this mischief will unfold, the man ordered the moth to hide in the boy's open hood. As the class progressed the man bided his time, pleased to see as the ice-breakers ended and the teacher had begun her lecture, Kim's apathy of the lecture began to grow and fuel his anticipation for his mischief. The man recognized that it would have been simpler to use the bratty Chloe or depressed Juleka, but he had a feeling his investment in Kim would bare just the right fruit he needed.<br/><br/>Finally, class had ended as the bell for the next class rung. Before Ms. Bustier dismissed the class as Kim gave Ivan the piece of paper he had written on prior. Ivan took the note and read it, the mysterious man behind the moth sensing the instant rage that filled the bulky boy.<br/><br/>"Alright Class, for those of you who have P.E Mr. D'argencourt will be waiting for you at the stadium, the rest of you can head to the library," Caline said as students got ready to leave.<br/><br/>"KIM!!!" Ivan yelled, standing up and about to ready a hard punch on a fearlessly nonchalant and giggling Kim.<br/><br/>"Ivan! What has gotten into you!?" Ms. Bustier asked with a scolding tone before Ivan could commit to his punch.<br/><br/>"It's Kim!" Ivan said, not providing further context as he was caught up in his emotions. Ivan turned his attention back to Kim, readying another punch.  "I'm so gonna get-"<br/><br/>"Ivan! You're scaring everyone!" The teacher said; Ivan taking a look around to realize that some of his classmates either sat cautiously or had quickly left the classroom.<br/><br/>Nathaniel quickly packed his tablet and left in fear for his supplies getting damaged, Nino left quickly since he was the closest to the door, and even Marinette seamed to be uneasy at the tension oozing from Ivan. Though not everyone seemed to be fearful of Ivan, Juleka saw what other viewed as scary as cool looking in her eyes, Alya seemed to be scrutinizing Kim with a stink-eye due to putting together that he had likely provoked Ivan, while Max and Alex were used to Kim doing things that provoked fights. However, what made Ivan feel heartbroken was when his eyes fell on Mylene, whom despite her look of concern, her eyes conveyed a sense of fear for what Ivan was going to do.<br/><br/>"Ivan, please go to the principal's office," Ms. Bustier ordered as she pointed to the classroom door. Ivan angrily crumbled the piece of paper into a ball, and held onto it in his fist as he walked out of the classroom.<br/><br/>"Dude, you can really be an asshole sometimes," Alix said disappointingly as she, Max, and Kim got up to head to P.E.<br/><br/>"Oh c'mon, I didn't even write anything that bad," Kim said as he and his friends began to walk down the class. When he made it to the front row, he and his friends were immediately caught by the sent of fresh treats, and turned their heads to see Marinette still sat with an open box of macaroons.<br/><br/>"Hello Marinette, I see you brought macaroons for us this time around," Max said as he saw that most of the treats were gone, having been given to some of the students that already left.<br/><br/>"Yep!" Marinette said proudly as she gave Max and Alix macaroons. As they both ate the delicious treats, Kim took initiative and reached his hand to take a Macaroon from the box; as he did so, Marinette had her attention caught by strange black moth that was perched on his shoulder. Marinette felt something was wrong about that moth, but before she could ponder any further, she came back down to earth by the sound of Alya smacking Kim's hand away from the box of macaroons.<br/><br/>"No way Kim, you aren't gonna get any treats from us," Alya declared with a scornful mien.<br/><br/>"What?" Kim and Marinette said out of confusion. Once Alya gave Marinette a wink, the bluenette understood what Alya was doing.<br/><br/>"Oh, right," Marinette said as she turned her head back to Kim, remembering Majestia's quote. "Sorry Kim, but after whatever you did to Ivan, I don't think I should really be giving you any macaroons today."<br/><br/>"What!? It isn't my fault he overreacts to everything. Can't I just have one?" Kim asked stubbornly.<br/><br/>Marinette thought about it for a second, before smiling with a hint of smugness. "I know, how about you apologize to Ivan, and I'll give you a treat!" Marinette said as Alya and her stood up and left to go to the library.<br/><br/>"Dammit man, Marinette's pastries are the best!" Kim whined as he could feel the pastry shaped hole in his stomach was unfilled.<br/><br/>"Well, guess you'll have to apologize to Ivan after class," Max said as he left the room.<br/><br/>"And if you roll over and play dead Marinette might give you two treats!" Alix said mockingly as she walked backwards out of the room. Kim flipped her off while she blew a subtlety smug raspberry back at him. Kim followed his friends to the stadium, and as soon as he left the class room, the black moth flew from his shoulder and towards the principal's office. While in the air, the moth caught sight of Ivan entering the principal's office.<br/><br/>"Excuse me young man, hasn't anyone taught you to knock?" Principal Damocles said with a stern, yet composed look. "Come on, out you go; let's try it again."<br/><br/>Ivan growled before closing the door. <em>"What the hell is he talking about? Didn't he know I was sent here?" </em> Ivan thought, his pre-existing anger making the inconvenience more frustrating than it normally would have been.<br/><br/>Before Ivan could open the office door, the dark moth flew on-and absorbed into the rolled paper ball he held; liquifying itself and coating the paper ball in black and violet ooze. Suddenly Ivan frozen still as a black moth mark appeared on his face and a neon moth-like symbol appeared before him.<br/><br/><em>"Meduso, I am Hawkmoth,"</em> the mysterious man introduced himself. <em>"People are frightened by your intimidating appearance, never giving you the chance to show them the kind soul you are deep down. To make matters worse your vengeance was taken from you by a naïve adult. I give you not only the power to seek revenge on those who have wronged you, but also the chance to see just what people really think of you."</em><br/><br/>Ivan smiled as his anger caused him to immediately fall under Hawkmoth's influence. "Okay Hawkmoth," Ivan said as shadowy ooze came out of the paper ball and coated the boy's entire body. As this process occurred, principal Damocles still awaited for Ivan to knock on the door.<br/><br/>"Well... Come on in!' Damocles said casually, only to be answered with the door being blown to pieces by sheer force; said force knocking the principal off his seat.<br/><br/>"Do I look scary to you?" A voice said, Damocles recognizing it as belonging to the boy from before. The principal got up with a look of shock from the power that had knocked him down. However, that power morphed into sheer terror as he witnessed what was in front of him.<br/><br/>Ivan's skin had turned grey and made out of stone, his teeth were sharp, his eyes glowed yellow, his clothes were gone, his dyed tuft of hair was now a long snake attached to his head, and the bottom half of his body was replaced by a large scaly snake tail. Before the principal could scream in fear, as he made eye-contact with Meduso his entire body turned to stone. Ivan threw the large desk to the side of the room and slithered up to the principal, scrutinizing the look of terror on Damocles' stone visage. Meduso was angered by the way Damocles' mien looked at him, the way his shock turned to fear by the sight of him.<br/><br/><em>"In his defense, you did knock a little too hard,"</em> Hawkmoth said to Meduso, his newly created supervillain. <em>"How about we go search for a second opinion? Like that friend of yours? Kim?"</em><br/><br/>"Kim..." Meduso said, as he began to huff and puff angrily. "KIIIIIIIIIIIIM!!!" Meduso yelled out as he broke through the wall and landed down, making his way to the stadium.<br/><br/><em>"Now, with a supervillain on the loose in Paris..."</em> Hawkmoth spoked to himself with a calculating, yet hopeful tone. <em>"Super heroes are sure to follow."</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you all enjoyed my second chapter! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! I'm a pretty busy person, so unfortunately I can't guarantee a consisted release schedule. However, I hope you I still made the chapters enjoyable for all of you.</p><p>Notes:</p><p>*Sabrina and Chloe were pretty fun to write. For this fic instead of going with the "villain and goon" dynamic that they had in the show, I decided to write them with more of a "red oni and blue oni" dynamic. Chloe is the compulsive and emotional red oni while Sabrina is the calm and thoughtful blue oni who keeps Chloe in check.</p><p>*Ivan's Akumatized form this time around is not Stone heart, but a new Akuma I've named Meduso! Don't worry, many popular Akumas will make appearances in this fic, however there will also be many people who will get Akumas different from the show. Sometimes it will be due to the situation, story, replacing Akumas that I personally find underwhelming, or in Ivan's case- I decided to make Meduso since I both felt it was a more thematically fitting Akuma given the situation and how he felt, and also wanted to make my own Akuma with a unique fight instead of just ripping off both of the Stone Heart fights.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Answering the Call</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>While in the library, Alya was showing Marinette a compilation of fights of Knightowl and Sparrow fighting various villains from their rouges gallery. Marinette was seeing Knightowl land a finishing blow on Technopirate when the ground suddenly shook so hard that Alya and her were thrown off their seats. Marinette shook her head as she tried to recuperate from hitting her head as students seemed to panic.<br/><br/>"Come on!" Alya said as she pulled Marinette up from the ground, and pulled the bluenette towards for big monitors that displayed surveillance footage. Marinette was overcome with shock as she saw what looked to be a Gorgon had jumped to the front of the school.<br/><br/>"KIIIIIIM!!!" Meduso exclaimed like a war cry; petrifying all the terrified civilians that made eye-contact with him.<br/><br/>"A gorgon!? Why does he look and sound like Ivan!?" Marinette said with a concerned expression.<br/><br/>"It's as if he's been turned into a real life supervillain!" Alya said excitedly as she turned to a confused Marinette before taking out her phone. "GPS check, battery check, I am so out of here!"<br/><br/>"Hey! Where are you going?" Marinette askes as Alya ran to the library's large double doors.<br/><br/>"Where there is a supervillain, there is always a superhero close behind! No way I'm missing this!" Alya explained as she rushed out of the library.<br/><br/>Marinette thought Alya was crazy; as she looked back towards the security footage, she saw a car stop before Meduso and the passengers get out of the car and run for their lives. Meduso then picked up the car and threw it at the security cam, scarring Marinette so much that she braced for an impact that would never come. Marinette then opened her eyes to see the monitor was now offline. "I hope you don't do anything crazy Alya."<br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/><br/>In the Louvre, a historian was looking over many newly found Egyptian artifacts that had been given to the museum for the Tutankhamun exhibit. The historian was the exhibit director, a man with short orange-brown hair, pale blue eyes, and was wearing a lavender scarf; gray jacket and slacks as well as black shoes. The man was Alim Kubdel, who was looking over the recently set up exhibit. Beside him was his son Jalil, a younger boy with chin length reddish-brown hair, dark blue eyes. Jalil wore a white shirt with a golden Eye of Horus on it, a greenish-gray jacket, beige jeans and sandals.<br/><br/>"Alright! Everything seems to be in order," Alim said as he was examining a series of ancient vases. There was a scar a couple days prior when some men carrying over the boxes of artifacts had almost dropped them, and Alim sighed in relief as none of the artifacts appeared damaged. However, Alim would quickly turn agitated and angry as he looked towards the side of the vase he was just looking at, realizing a massive crack that ran from top to bottom as well as some of the artwork being obscured by scratches or broken pieces. "No! Those fools!" Alim exclaimed, angered and devastated at the damage, feeling as history of itself was somehow harmed.<br/><br/>"Father wait! That one was discovered like that!" Jalil said as he flipped through some pages on a clip board, and showed his father a document detailing the status of the vase in question. Alim scanned the document, calming down as he saw that the vase was indeed discovered with the damages. "Ah, I see. Apologies for my outburst."<br/><br/>"It's fine dad," Jalil said with an understanding smile. "looks like being hired as the exhibit director has us both anxious," Jalil said. Despite still being in college, his father was permitted to let Jalil volunteer as an assistant for his father, which put more pressure for him to not get too excited and get his father in trouble.<br/><br/>Alim gave a small chuckle as he continued to scrutinize the damaged vase. "That's true, but it's a little bit more than that son." Alim said as he stood up straight and turned to his son. "You see, even though though the damage may seem minor, we will never no what used to occupy the space between these cracks and broken spaces." Alim then turned the vase over to reveal what looked to be an Egyptian deity, but a missing piece made the head a mystery. "Look here, from what we can see of the black neck and what seems to be the tip of a dog's nose. So of course you would think this is a picture of Anubis. However, what if, there could be a small chance that it's not Anubis, but some other deity? What if, this missing piece could have been a discovery of an unheard of deity? A wealth of knowledge and discovery, lost because of a single, missing piece of a vase."<br/><br/>"Huh, I never thought about it like that," Jalil said as he looked at the empty void in the vase. From the looks of the hieroglyphics, it was definitely Anubis,  but Jalil couldn't help but be fascinated by the newfound doubt that while small, still persisted in his mind. "Guess we'll never truly know what the missing piece could be."<br/><br/>"And that is precisely why I tell you and Alix to keep everything around you intact," Alim said with a fatherly smile.<br/><br/>"You're still mad about the "bookshelf" incident?" Jalil asked, referring to a stunt Alix and her friend Kim attempted at the expense of a book shelf and giving one of their friends a broken arm.<br/><br/>"That and the time you broke your phone while attempting to reenact Icarus flying with wax wings," Alim said, as Jalil scratched the back of his neck and looked away from his father with a nervous chuckle.<br/><br/>While Alim was having light banter with his son, he looked to the side and noticed that an elderly man in a Hawaiian shirt was wandering around the exhibit. "Excuse me," Alim said, getting the old man's attention as he walked towards him. "I'm sorry sir, but this area is closed to the public, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave," Alim asked kindly, confused as to how the old man got in the exhibit without alerting the guards.<br/><br/>"Oh, forgive me, I didn't realize I was trespassing," Fu said with an amused smile. "Actually, I am looking for someone. Do you know of anyone that goes by the name Kubdel?"<br/><br/>Alim seemed taken aback, the old man knew his last name, but supposedly didn't know the exhibit was off limits? "Yes, that would be my son and I's last name."<br/><br/>"Ah, <em>miraculous!</em> It was about <em>time</em> I found you," Fu said joyfully.<br/><br/>"Dad, do you know this man?" Jalil asked as he turned to his father, who seemed to have put on a serious; on guard expression.<br/><br/>"I... I have urgent business with this man. It must have slipped my mind," Alim said as he turned and put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Please look after the exhibit, I must speak to him in private." Jalil seemed confused, but complied regardless as he turned to walk towards the rest of the Egyptian artifacts while his dad left the exhibit with the old man.<br/><br/>Alim and Fu walked silently as they left the exhibit hall, and discretely avoided the sights of civilians and the museum guards. Taking out his keys Alim opened a door to a storage room, letting Fu enter first as he then close the door; locking them both in.<br/><br/>"Alright then, your next words are going to be the difference between us having either a civil discussion, or you being sent to the hospital," Alim said as he turned on the lights, illuminating various artifacts and paintings from different exhibits, many of them hidden under white sheets.<br/><br/>"My, how aggressive. I assume that means you're aware of what happened," Fu said, with a look of urgency.<br/><br/>"Indeed, which either makes you a guardian, or an enemy."<br/><br/>"You needn't worry," Wayzz said as he, Pollen, Trixx, Duusu, and Nooroo all exited Fu's pockets. "It is thanks to Master Fu that we all weren't captured." Seeing the five kwamis before him, Alim calmed his nerves with a sigh of relief.<br/><br/>"It's good to know you're all safe," Alim said as he dug into his jacket's pockets and pulled out a silver pocket watch. Clicking a button on the side, the pocket watch turned from silver, to blue and white as a glowing orb of light flew out of the device. The orb of light formed into a rabbit kwami, who gave out a large yawn.</p><p>"What time is it?" The kwami asked as she rubbed her long rabbit ears. As she fully opened her eyes, the kwami was overcome with joyful shock as she saw five kwami in front of her. "You guys are finally here!" The kwami exclaimed as she quickly gave each kwami a hug. Alim and Fu smiled as the kwamis got to catch up and mingle.<br/><br/>"Are these five the only ones?" Alim asked with concern.<br/><br/>Master Fu shook his head with a small smile. "The Yin-Yang series have also been secured, we won't need to worry about villains having the power of creation and destruction at their disposal."<br/><br/>"Good, but what of the Chinese Zodiac?"<br/><br/>This time Fu could only express a mournful frown as he recalled the incident. "Outside of the Rabbit miraculous, and the Dragon Miraculous in Japan, the other ten have been captured. And unfortunately the identity of the ones responsible for invading our hidden temple remain a mystery."<br/><br/>"Dammit, and on top of that we have to deal with another Hawkmoth awakening. I assume you kwamis have sensed their presence?" Alim asked, irritated by the amount of dire situations that were occurring all at once.<br/><br/>"Indeed, we have," Wayzz said.<br/><br/>"But don't worry, the master has already found two people worthy of the ladybug and cat miraculous," Nooroo added with a hopeful tone.<br/><br/>"Already? And for the cat and ladybug no less?" Alim asked, assuming that Fu had come to find him as soon as possible, the historian deduced that he must have made this decision recently.<br/><br/>Fu gave an amused chuckle, the kind that could ease anyone's worries. "Do not threat Mr. Kubdel, I believe I've crossed paths with a worthy duo. I assure this city will be in good hands."<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>"Who was the first president of the fifth French republic?" Nathalie asked Adrian as she paced back and forth beside him in the dining room.<br/><br/>"Everyone thinks it was Degole, but it was actually Rene Cote before the first elections," Adrien answered, leaning on the dining room table as he suffered from boredom. He had heard these questions time and time again, to the point where instead of feeling smarter he just felt stagnant.<br/><br/>"Excellent Adrien," Nathalie said with a proud smile.<br/><br/>"Give me a minute, would you Nathalie," Gabriel said, standing by the door on the opposite side of the dining room table.<br/><br/>"Yes sir," Nathalie said as she stepped away from Adrien and stood beside the wall. Adrien sat up, surprised from his father coming to see him so early.<br/><br/>Gabriel took a deep, contemplative breath before speaking. "You are not going to school, I've already told you," He said in a calm, yet demanding tone. "And leaving on your own like that, what were you thinking pulling off such a dangerous stunt!?"<br/><br/>Adrien turned to Nathalie with a look of betrayal, but that betrayal shifted into surprise as he noticed Nathalie's eyes widened with shock. <em>"Wait, if Nathalie didn't tell him, then how did he know!?" </em>Adrien thought to himself as he stood up with his hands firmly placed against the table. "But father-"<br/><br/>"Everything you need is right here where I can keep an eye on you, I will not have you outside in that dangerous world," Gabriel said after interrupting his son.<br/><br/>"It's not dangerous father! I'm always stuck in here by myself, why can't I go to school like everybody else!"<br/><br/>"Because you are not like everyone else! You are my son!" Gabriel said firmly before turning around. "Continue," He said as he left the room.<br/><br/>Nathalie then walked up to Adrien, clearly seeing the boy wasn't in the right mind to proceed with the lessons. "We can leave it there for today if yo-" Before Nathalie can finish, Adrien already ran away to his room.<br/><br/>Adrien entered his room and slammed the door shut, before diving onto his bed and burying his head against the soft pillows. <em>"Dammit father! Why!? How many more years am I going to be alone!?"</em>  Adrien lamented his isolation, longing to return to the days where Chloe, Sabrina, and himself used to play at the park under Lt. Raincomprix's supervision, or when they ran through the halls of Andre Bourgeois Le Grand Paris hotel while Chloe's butler Jean would chase them down in a panic to keep them from getting hurt. Most of all were the days the two girls would visit the mansion for playdates, while his father and Nathalie were busy with work, the boy's mother looked after them; played with them, until she-<br/><br/>Adrien's thought process was interrupted as the ground abruptly shook. Adrien snapped his attention to the window, hearing the commotion of smashed vehicles and weapons being fired. Adrien immediately ran out of his room and exited outside, seeing a blockade of police cars and officers lined across the street outside the mansion gates.<br/><br/>A chubby man with short orange hair, blue eyes, and a lieutenant's uniform stood atop a police van, the man being none other than Sabrina's father, Lt. Roger Raincomprix. Adrien could tell that whatever was going on was especially serious, considering that aside from the Lieutenant, all the officers wore heavy armor and durable helmets with tinted visors.<br/><br/>"Ready!" Roger said as his men aimed at the gorgon monster in front of them. "Fi-" Awaiting the call to open fire, the soldiers turned, a look of surprise and terror on their faces as the Lieutenant was turned to stone. Taking initiative, the armored police men decided to just open fire with their high-powered taser guns. The energy shot bounced off of Meduso's stone skin, seeing that the angry villain continued to slither closer, the men yelled to fall back as they retreated. <br/><br/>However one of the more stubborn officers stayed behind, trying to aim for Meduso's mouth. Adrien was overcome with shock as Meduso finally came into view, the villain grabbing the now panicking officer and tearing off his helmet.<br/><br/>"Do I look scary to you!?" Meduso asked angrily, as the officer's terrified visage began to turn to stone.<br/><br/>Adrien couldn't help but witness it, a real life monster. Sure he was well aware of the supernatural, whether it be the famous superheroes of various countries, or even the revelation of various supernatural entities that escaped the Bermuda Triangle. But seeing it in person, caused nothing short of shock and awe. Adrien would quickly regret his idleness however, when Meduso began to turn his head towards him. Adrien didn't even have time to process that he was about to be turned to stone, that is until his body guard suddenly slid into view, the Gorilla's back facing towards Meduso.<br/><br/>"Adrien get inside!" Nathalie ordered from the mansion's front doors, keeping her eyes on the boy.<br/><br/>Adrien quickly ran to the door, but before entering he couldn't help but turn around at the sound of Meduso punching open the Mansion's front gate's. The Gorilla turned around, and quickly sprinted to punch Meduso square in the face, but before his fist could connect, the bodyguard turned into stone just as his attack was a mere centimeter away from Meduso's nose. Before Adrien could move to his aid, he was pulled back inside by Nathalie, the women quickly shutting the door and locking it.<br/><br/>"We're just gonna leave him behind!?" Adrien exclaimed with a worried mien.</p><p>"It's too late, he's already been turned to stone," Nathalie said coldly. Looking at Adrien's seemingly shocked expression, Nathalie quickly replaced her cold expression with her best attempt at a soft, uplifting smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine. Please return to your room where it's safe." Adrien complied and returned to his room, as he did so Nathalie stayed near the door, where unbeknownst to her, Meduso was planning to punch straight through.</p><p><em>"Stop Meduso!"</em> Hawkmoth ordered before Meduso could accidentally punch a hole into Nathalie's stomach. <em>"You're business is with Kim, not the woman and boy!"</em> Hawkmoth exclaimed, with an urgent; yet disciplinary tone.<br/><br/>"Right Hawkmoth, I must find Kim... Kim... KIIIIIM!!!" Meduso exclaimed as his attention finally returned to his initial goal. Hawkmoth breathed a sigh of relief as Meduso was kept from being sidetracked.<br/><br/>While Meduso returned to his trek towards the stadium, Adrien had hopped over his couch and turned on the news. The news seemed to be showing Andre Bourgeois, the mayor of Paris giving a statement to the press about the situation.<br/><br/>"I urge all Parisians to stay in their homes until the situation is under control!" Andre said before the camera cut to a news reporter with fuchsia hair and brown eyes named Nadja Chamak.<br/><br/>"As incredible as it seems, it has been confirmed that Paris is indeed under attack by a supervillain. The police have been struggling to keep the situation under control, and according to our sources, no superheroes with global or continental jurisdiction are currently available to deal with the threat," Nadja said as Meduso continued to cause havoc, destroying vehicles, light posts, and petrifying Paris citizens.<br/><br/>Adrien watched intently at the chaos being displayed, cursing his isolation as he wished he could help the people who had no way to defend themselves. As soon as he thought that however, he finally noticed below him was a small, hexagonal box with what seemed to be a Chinese symbol on top.<br/><br/>"What's this doing here?"<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>"What's this doing here?" Marinette asked as she looked down and saw a small box next to her keyboard. Marinette had been kneeling on her chair, hiding behind the chair's back as she anxiously witnessed the chaos Meduso was causing on the news. It was all terrifying, but she was distracted by that terror upon noticing the box before her. She picked up and scrutinized the box wondering how on earth it had appeared literally under her nose. What was even stranger was the symbol that was at the top of the box. It looked like it was Chinese instead of any of the other East-Asian countries, but from all that Marinette had studied and read up on her Chinese heritage, the symbol didn't resemble anything she had seen before.<br/><br/>Opening the box, momentarily revealed a pair of red earrings with black spots. Immediately those earrings glowed a bright red light, which cause Marinette to wince and drop the box as she covered her eyes from the blinding flash. As the glow dimmed and formed into an orb, Marinette stared in awe as the glow dissipated and revealed Tikki.<br/><br/>"AH!" Marinette said as she hopped off her chair and fearfully backed away from the small; floating creature. "Help, it's a bug! A-a mouse! A bug-mouse!" Marinette exclaimed as she hid behind a wooden column, and then further backed herself against her work-desk. <br/><br/>"It's okay, don't be scar-"<br/><br/>"AH! Bug mouse talks!" Marinette said as she began to throw various items at the Kwami. While the existence of the supernatural was common knowledge allover the world, Marinette still couldn't help but succumb to her fear and anxiety when there just so happens to also be a terrifying gorgon wreaking havoc in Paris. Tikki effortlessly dodged all the items thrown at her while continuing to try and calm down the bluenette.<br/><br/>"Listen Marinette, I know everything may seem a bit strange to you, but-" As Tikki was talking, Marinette managed to trap Tikki in a clear cup against the ground. "Okay, if that makes you feel better," Tikki smiled.<br/><br/>"What are you? And how do you know my name?" Marinette asked, in an interrogative tone.<br/><br/>"I am a kwami, and my name is Tikki, now let me explain." Tikki said in a composed manner.<br/><br/>Marinette gave it some thought, the creature-or kwami as Tikki calls herself seems to be docile, and very patient. "Alright, I'll let you out and-"<br/><br/>"Great!" Tikki said as she phased through the glass and flew up to meet Marinette's eyes.<br/><br/>"Ah!" Marinette exclaimed, surprised by Tikki suddenly phasing through the glass. The girl began to breath heavily, feeling the need to panic from every weird thing the kwami did.<br/><br/>"Marinette, please calm down," Tikki said, attempting to sooth Marinette's nerves. "I'm your friend, do I really look like something that would want to hurt you?"<br/><br/>Marinette's breaths began to calm as she took in Tikki's words. "No... You don't look like you could harm me... actually you look kinda adorable," Marinette said, as her calming nerves allowed her to finally get a proper look at Tikki.<br/><br/>"Thanks!" Tikki said with a wholesome smile.<br/><br/>"Hmm... Alright, what exactly are you doing here?"<br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/><br/>"Alright! I still don't know what you're doing here!?" Adrien said, as he chased Plague around the room. When he opened the box, the kwami had materialized, after a brief exchange about the genie in the lamp Plague suddenly started flying around and putting his mouth on everything, trying to find out what was edible. As Plague began to try and fail to eat the T.V remote, Adrien looked to the rock climbing wall on the side of the room. Ignoring the risks, Adrien climbed the wall before leaping from it, catching the just surprised kwami in his hands as he landed on the couch. "Gotcha! Now how about you get to explaining?"<br/><br/>Plague gave an annoyed expression as he stared Adrien in the eyes. "Look, I'm a Kwami. I grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction, got it?"<br/><br/>"Nu-uh," Adrien said, shaking his head in confusion.<br/><br/>"Alright good, you got anything to eat? I'm starving."<br/><br/>Adrien stood up, still holding Plague tight in his hands. "This has to be some kind of joke... no wait, no one here has a sense of humor."<br/><br/>"And no one can know that I exist!" Plagg exclaimed demandingly as he slipped out from Adrien's clutches. "Not your friends. Not your family. No one."<br/><br/>"Why?" Adrien asked as he lightly scratched his head. "Weird supernatural stuff like you aren't exactly unheard of. I mean, half the superheroes in the world use ma-" Adrien stopped his own train of thought, as he finally realized what was happening. "Wait! Are you saying that..."<br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/><br/>"You want me to be a superhero!?" Marinette exclaimed, before Tikki harshly shushed her. "Oh... Sorry."<br/><br/>"Yes, thanks to your ingenuity and selflessness, you have been chosen to wield the ladybug miraculous and control the aspect of creation," Tiki explained.<br/><br/>Marinette shook her head in response, her face filled with denial. "No, this must be some mistake. Selflessness? Ingenuity? I'm more like clumsy and average. Where did you even get all that from?" Marinette asked, sure that any superhero qualities were out of her league.<br/><br/>"When you saved us from being stolen!" Tikki said, as Marinette gave off a further confused mien. "The elderly man who's jewlry box was stolen. You helped catch the thief that stole the miraculouses!"<br/><br/>Marinette stood up and walked over to the box, picking it up to look at the earrings within. "So these earrings are the miraculous things you were talking about?" Marinette said, recalling when Adrien and her fought that thief.<br/><br/>"Not just the earrings, there were other power granting jewels that contained us, and the two of you saved us!" Tikki said, once again expressing her gratitude towards the teenager.<br/><br/>"Look, I appreciate the thanks, but anybody else would have done the same. Adrien did most of the fighting anyways, all I did was block and keep myself from getting stabbed." Marinette said as she closed the box and placed it next to her computer's keyboard. "I'm just a clumsy; normal girl with a normal life. And I'd like to keep it that way."<br/><br/>"That may be true, but you can be something greater," Tikki said as she quickly flew up to Marinette's face. "Even if "anybody" could have helped, you can't change the fact that you were the one that helped save us. Thus it's because of that and more that my master believes you to be worthy of my powers."<br/><br/>Marinette continued to stare at Tikki. The creature seemed so adorable and youthful, yet there was this wise aura that seemed to ooze out of Tikki's every word. If this strange being really believed in her that much, then maybe it was worth a shot. "Alright, if I was able to help you and that old man... then I guess I could at least try to do the same for the people of Paris." Marinette said, still filled with hesitation. She couldn't believe what she was saying, her serving the people of Paris? As a superhero?  She could already here Chloe's laughter ringing in her head. Marinette gave a deep breath, despite failing to calm her doubts, she knew what she had to do. "Alright Tikki, let's do this."<br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>"Alright Plagg! Let's do this!" Adrien exclaimed, ecstatic that he was going to be a superhero. However, his excitement quickly died as he realized something very crucial. "Wait... I can't be a superhero! I'm stuck here! I'm not even allowed to got school!" Adrien exclaimed, once again feeling the burdens of isolation crush his hopes and dreams. "What good is a superhero who's imprisoned in his own house!?"<br/><br/>"No good!" Plagg exclaimed nonchalantly as he was riding on a roll of toilet paper. "And that's why it's all going to change soon... if you're up for it that is."<br/><br/>Adrien looked at the silver ring he held in the palm of his hand. With a look of determination, he put the ring on before clenching his fist. "I've been up for it. What are my powers again?"<br/><br/>"Now we're talking!" Plagg said as he flew up in front of Adrien. "Okay, so you will bare the power of destruction. You activate the ability at will, when you do so anything you touch will be destroyed. You can go from making things crumble to pieces to obliterating an object's very atoms and erase it from existence. You also wield a fancy shmancy metal staff that changes length at the press of a button. " Plagg explained.<br/><br/>"For real!?" Adriene exclaimed excitedly as he looked at his hand. "Awesome, all I have to do is kill that monster with just a touch-"<br/><br/>"You won't be killing anyone!" Plague said sternly, getting Adrien's curious attention. "Meduso isn't just a monster, he's a victim that's been turned into one."<br/><br/>"Really? How?" Adrien asked, surprised that someone like Meduso was a transformation and not a full on monster. <br/><br/>"It's all thanks to an Akuma butterfly. I'll explain the details another time, but all you need to know is that there is a black and violet butterfly possessing an object that's in Meduso's possession. Meduso will turn back to normal once the object is broken, and you will need to destroy the butterfly that comes out."<br/><br/>Adrien looked to Plagg with determined and excited readiness. "Alright, so how do we get this whole superhero thing rolling?"<br/><br/>"It's easy, all you got to do is say "transform me!" and you're all set!" Plagg said, though Adrien seemed to look at him with a sense of slight disappointment and confusion.<br/><br/>"Wait... that's it? No fancy catchphrase? No Morphing Grid? No screaming at the top of my lungs while my hair glows gold? Just "transform me"?" <br/><br/>"Well you can technically say anything if you want to spice things up, you just have to say something that expresses a desire to transform and retransform." Hearing Plagg say that, Adrien cupped his chin as he tried to come up with a good transformation catchphrase. Instantly Adrien's face lit up as he came up with the perfect one.<br/><br/>"I got it! Plagg! Claws out!" Adrien exclaimed as he punched the air.<br/><br/>"Wait! Let me eat somth-aaaaaaaa-" Plagg was cut off as he was sucked into the Adrien's ring, the jewel turning pitch black; glowing with a green symbol of a cat paw on the front of it. Adrien began to dramatically pose as he transformed, adorning a leather catsuit with gloves, boots, a large round golden bell attached to his collar and a leather belt that extended as a mock tail. He also had a black eye mask, messy hair, green cat eyes, and a short metal staff on his back. Adrien whistled as he looked at himself, the skin tight leather surprisingly comfortable and flexible.<br/><br/>"Woah, was not expecting this..." Adrien said as he began to stretch. He noticed how his leather suit felt almost nostalgic, like classic superhero outfits from silver and golden age comics. Despite the fact that he was expecting something more elaborate and busy looking, he honestly wanted the more simplistic and retro aesthetic he was wearing. The boy looked around for a good way to leave, and that is when his eyes set on the large windows that spanned across the entire upper half of the wall in front of him. He then brought his hand up to his face, smirking as it began to cackle with a black aura.<br/><br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>"Okay, so I have the power to create any object I want?"  Marinette asked as she stood in front of her body-sized mirror in the corner of her room; putting on the ladybug earrings.<br/><br/>"Yes, and don't forget you have the ability to fix anything that is damaged as well," Tikki said as she floating next to Marinette.<br/><br/>"And I have to break the object containing a... what was it again?" Marinette asked as she nervously put her pointer fingers together.<br/><br/>"It's called an Akuma. A corrupted butterfly that materializes the negative side of a person's soul to grant them powers. Normally heroes have to destroy them, but with your powers you can purify the butterfly and let it live freely," Tikki explained.<br/><br/>Marinette gave a nervous sigh before shaking her head. "This is too much for me to process Tikki, I won't be able to do this."<br/><br/>Tikki shook her head with a confidant smile. "You just need to believe in yourself Marinette, I promise to explain things more in depth once Meduso is defeated. But for now, just say "transform me", or "spots on" if you're feeling fancy."<br/><br/>"Umm... Transform me...?" Marinette said, her desire to transform sucking Tikki inside her earrings. "Woah! What's happening!?" Marinette asked as she transformed, adorning a skintight full body suit, a mask, and a yoyo. The entire outfit and yoyo was red with black spots like a lady bug.</p><p>"Wow, this is... something?" Marinette looked at herself in the mirror with confusion and uncertainty. She looked like a superhero, but the simplicity was kind of disappointing. Still she supposed it did the job, she was supposed to be a superhero and not a fashionista.<br/><br/>"Alright Tikki, what's next?" Marinette asked, only for her question to go unanswered. Marinette looked around the room, calling the name of the kwami as she seemed to have disappeared. "Oh... this is how we're doing things isn't it?" Marinette said, as she realized that her transformation meant that Tikki was likely submerged in the transformation, just like how it worked in some Saturday morning cartoons.<br/><br/>"The monster seems to be continuing it's rampage, and appears to be heading to the nearby stadium," Marinette turned to see live footage of Meduso slithering through the streets of Paris, destroying whatever was around him while petrifying citizens. Marinette analyzed Meduso's actions, her attention being caught by the fact that the gorgon seemed to be scrutinizing the faces of everyone he petrified, and despite his irritation he left the citizens alone instead of killing them. However, Marinette's attentiveness turned into urgency as she noticed a familiar girl stealthily following Meduso."A-Alya!?" Marinette said with concern for her reckless friend.<br/><br/>"Marinette!? Did you come home okay?" Sabine asked from the living room below. Marinette was taken aback, realizing she'd have to exit the room quick before her mother could see her in the superhero suit.<br/><br/>"Yeah mom! Just super!" Marinette answered, her mother not hearing it as she made her way up to the skylight door leading to the upstairs balcony. Marinette faintly heard her mother telling Tom that they had to call the school as she made it to the balcony. Marinette took a moment to compose herself, letting herself absorb the situation before going after the supervillain terrorizing Paris.<br/><br/>"Alright, I've got crazy powers and this... yoyo?" Marinette played with the yoyo for a second as she looked around, her eyes stopped upon Notre Dame, her keen sights spotting the iconic gargoyles. Curiosity getting the best of her, Marinette wound up her arm and used her super strength to throw her yoyo extremely far. Marinette was shocked as the yoyo perfectly wrapped around the gargoyle's ear. <em>"How did I do that!? Was it luck? No... it was like the yoyo had a mind of it's own?"</em>  Marinette thought to herself as she slightly tugged the yoyo, with the desire to get to the church before her. Suddenly, like a grappling hook the string began to pull her; making fly through the air.<br/><br/>"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Marinette exclaimed as she took to the skies.<br/><br/></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you all enjoyed the third chapter of Protectors of Paris! Our heroes finally dawned their superhero outfits and accepted the call for help!</p><p>Notes:</p><p>*So as some of you may have noticed, many scenes so far have been, more or less abridged versions of scenes from the origins episode. I felt that seeing how some scenes from origins are kinda important for establishing many character motivations and struggles (mostly Adriens), I opted to go with the abridged angle and see how I can show off the character's personalities and what extra stuff I can add to these scenes and scenarios. Like how in the last chapter I gave a lot of characterization for the classmate characters. Don't worry, I still have plenty of original stuff in the works (i.e Alim Kubdel), but I'll also be tackling many iconic scenes and fights with some fun and spicy twists and turns that I'm will make for some fun escapades.</p><p>*Alim Kubdel is the Rabbit user! Seeing many scenes of Alix in the series, especially Bunnix gave me a lot of inspiration and interesting ideas to play around with in regards to the Kubdels. Something I really want to do with the Miraculous is make them feel like they are actively being used by heroes who need them to fight against certain threats, and aren't all just locked away until our main characters get involved. And speaking of which, depending on what powers get revealed for the rest of the chinese zodiacs, I will probably come back and edit the number of miraculous that have actually been stolen.</p><p>*Also as an interesting thing, I decided to make both the French version's "transform me" and the unique transformation chants of the English dub exist here.</p><p>*By the way, how many of you caught the Zack Storm reference?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Dropping In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Alright, I can get the hang of this!" Adrien said giddily as he was walking on top of his staff, which he had extended and wedged between two buildings over the street. It was a strange feeling, despite the need for balance Adrien felt that walking on his thin staff at such a height was no different from a leisurely stroll. However, before he could continue testing out his newly enhanced physicality and senses, the sound of a girl screaming drew the cat hero's attention to the sky. Adrien could barely react as a flailing Marinette dive right on him. Both of would have splat against the ground if it weren't for Marinette's yoyo somehow tying the two heroes together and anchoring onto the wedged staff above.<br/><br/>"Well hey there! Nice of you to drop in," Adrien said with a welcoming smile, seemingly unbothered by almost slamming headfirst against asphalt.<br/><br/>"Hehe... Sorry," Marinette said with an embarrassed tone as they both freed themselves. Adrien quickly turned and landed on his feet while Marinette fell face-first against the ground.<br/><br/>"You okay?" Adrien asked as he helped the blunette up to her feet.<br/><br/>"I'm good, my nose is basically invincible at this point," Marinette said, though she was a little surprised that her nose wasn't bleeding at all.<br/><br/>"You must be my partner. The name is..." Adrien took a second to put his hand on his chin as he tried to figure out what kind of alias he should have and snapped his finger as soon as he came up with the perfect name. "Chat Noir, yeah! Chat Noir," Adrien said with satisfaction. "And you?"<br/><br/>"I'm Ma...Mar..." Marinette was struggling to free her yoyo as she answered, until freeing the yoyo at the expense of Chat getting hit in the head by said yoyo. "Very clumsy... sorry..." Marinette said as she re-wound her yoyo.<br/><br/>"Don't sweat it clumsy girl, I'm learning the ropes too," Chat said as he picked up his staff. Before the two could converse further, their attention was taken as a massive stone structure in the distance came tumbling down with enough force to shake the earth beneath their feet. "Looks like that's our cue!" Chat exclaimed with an expression that Marinette felt was almost too excited. The cat hero ran and extended his pole to boost himself atop the buildings and make his way to Meduso's location.<br/><br/>Marinette took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she hesitantly threw her yoyo at one of the buildings' chimneys, and found herself forcefully pulled and launched through the air yet again, hanging on for dear life.<br/><br/></p><p> </p><hr/><p><br/><br/><br/>"Ugh! It's finally over!" Chloe exclaimed as she halted her jog, trying her best to not fall on the dirty, grassy field. "What kind of school has us all do P.E on the first day! My makeup is ruined and my outfit's full of sweat!" As Chloe continued to whine dramatically Sabrina jogged up beside her with a bottle of water in one hand and a towel in the other.<br/><br/>"Here, have some before you collapse," Sabina said with a small giggle as Chloe hastily grabbed the bottle, put one hand on her own hip and tilted her head up as she drank the refreshing water. "And here's a towel for the makeup."<br/> <br/>"Thanks Sabrina," Chloe said as she finished drinking the water and cleaned her makeup with the towel. A couple moments later the blonde heard someone whistle behind her. Turning around she saw Kim shamelessly checking her out, and Alix proceeding to jab the tall boy's abdomen while Max simply rolled his eyes. <br/><br/>"Look at that Sabrina, even being a sweaty mess can't stop my irresistibility!" Chloe exclaimed with an egotistical grin as she whipped her hair around while striking a dramatic pose.<br/><br/>"Yeah, you seem to have that gift," Sabrina chuckled, even if Chloe was boosting her own ego a bit much the redhead couldn't help but agree to an extent.<br/><br/>"You know, you don't look too bad yourself," Chloe said confidently.<br/><br/>"Me?" Sabrina asked, confused about exactly what Chloe was referring to.<br/><br/>"Yeah-you. Even after all of that utterly ridiculous running you've broken about as much of a sweat as Kim and Alex," Chloe said. No matter how much she scrutinized Sabrina, all she could find were just a couple drops of sweat.<br/><br/>"Oh, well to be honest this isn't really much compared to the gym," Sabrina answered with a slight blush as she rubbed the back of her neck.<br/><br/>"You go to the gym?" Sabrina and Chloe turned to see Kim walking towards them, with a swagger smirk that was painfully trying to hard to impress the ladies. From where the tall boy had come from, Alix and Max were placing bets on how exactly Kim was going to embarrass himself this time. "Strange, do you not use the school gym?" Kim asked. Normally the school's gym was reserved for about an hour after the end of school for sports teams to train, but as long team members were present some students would let others use the facilities.<br/><br/>"I use the gym at Le Grand Paris. Despite being a hotel, their gym is probably the best one I've ever been to," Sabrina answered.<br/><br/>"Daddy doesn't let mediocrity step one foot into the hotel. The gym, the suites, the culinary; everything is made to be absolutely perfect!" Chloe said, punctuating her words with sassy body language.<br/><br/>"Is that so? Maybe I should stop by and check it out? Could even show you how I get these bad boys in top shape," Kim said as he flexed his ripped biceps with a toothy grin.<br/><br/>Chloe couldn't help but scoff at what she was seeing and hearing; trying her best not to let her chuckle turn into outright cackling. "Yeah right! Like I said, mediocrity won't take one step into Le Grand Paris."<br/><br/>Despite Chloe's dismissiveness, Kim's confidence didn't falter. In fact, that confidence turned into an almost scary grin filled with zeal. "Ho-Ho! Is that a challenge?"<br/><br/>"Um... no?" Chloe said with a confused mien, having to mentally brace for whatever nonsense the jock was up to. "Does that monkey brain of yours really not know the difference between an insult and a stupid dare?"<br/><br/>"May as well be the same thing," Chloe and Sabrina jumped as Alix seemed to pop up out of nowhere behind them. The pink haired girl continued to walk between the two friends, shoving them apart with her shoulders as she walked towards Kim with a cocky mien. Alix stopped right before her rival while keeping her back turned to Chloe. "You just said this bozo here is too "mediocre" for your fancy-shmancy hotel gym, and by extension-" Alix twisted the top half of her body just enough to turn her head to Chloe with the same grin as Kim, though her mien conveyed a clear aura of irritation towards the rich girl's presence. "you just called me mediocre."<br/><br/>As Kim and Alix began to forcefully rope Chloe and Sabrina into a challenge, Max was a short distance away looking after their bags. "And of course, they haven't changed either," Max said as he rolled his eyes and turned on his phone. Despite giving off an annoyed sigh, his mouth slightly curved up into a subtle smirk that looked forward to another eventful school year. Max opened up YouTube to see if there had been any updates on the new Mecha Striker game that is in development. There had been a teaser a year ago, and since then fans had been anticipating Mecha Striker Four. While information on the game appeared to remain silent, something managed to swiftly catch the boy's eyes. In the breaking news section of YouTube were various livestream thumbnails with titles saying a supervillain was currently wreaking havoc in Paris. What was even more immediately shocking was that the supervillain in the thumbnails looked like Ivan. Max quickly clicked on one of the videos and watched live footage of Nadja Chamack covering the havoc the gorgon monster was wreaking. Max's eyes widened in fear and dread, immediately he stuffed both his belongings and those of his friends in their respective bags as fast as he could.<br/><br/>"KIM!!! ALIX!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!" Max exclaimed at the top of his lungs as he sprinted over to his friends. Everyone within earshot turned their head to Max, surprised by his sudden outburst.<br/><br/>"Yo! You okay? What're you freaking out about?" Kim asked, he hadn't ever seen his friend so distraught before, even compared to the bookshelf incident.<br/><br/>"What's going on?" Alix asked, for some reason the distressed aura coming off of Max made her body tense, like the worst was about to happen.<br/><br/>"We have to leave this instant! LOOK!!!" Max threw his hand forward as he ripped his earplugs from his phone, showing his friends the livestream.<br/><br/>"KIIIM!!!" Meduso could be heard through Max's phone destroying the streets and turning everyone he came across into stone.<br/><br/>"EW! What the fuck is that abomination!" Chloe exclaimed she saw the hatred filled stone visage of Meduso.<br/><br/>"Holy shit! That's Ivan!" Alix exclaimed as she managed to look past the stone skin and snake appendages.<br/><br/>"Wait a minute..." Sabrina noticed that a stadium has just appeared on the livestream of the villain attack... a very familiar stadium. The live feed zoomed in on Meduso as he coiled tail and began to make small bounces in a similar vain to Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. In an instant it appeared that Meduso has suddenly launched himself in the air so fast that the news copter's camera could not follow him. "ISN'T THAT-" Sabrina was interrupted by a loud crash from behind her, dirt and debris scattered as most of the stadium field was shattered and cracked apart like glass.<br/><br/>"KIIIIIM!!!" Meduso roared with intense fury. "Who's the wuss now!?"<br/><br/>"Kim let's go!" Max exclaimed, but when he turned to Kim, all he saw was his friend literally petrified into stone with a look of fear and awe towards Meduso. Looking to his right Max saw that Alix had also been turned to stone.<br/><br/>"CHLOE!" Sabrina exclaimed as Chloe had turned to stone while embracing her around the neck with a look of sheer horror expressed by the blonde's now stone visage.<br/><br/>Sabrina and Max looked on in horror as Meduso proceeded to slither towards them. Luckily a guardian angel came in the form of a boy in a tight leather cat suit gracefully falling from the sky as he swung down his metal staff against Meduso's head like a mallet. Meduso winced and recoiled from the pain as Chat stuck the landing before the villain.<br/><br/>"You know it isn't nice to pick on someone who can't fight back," Chat said with a smile as he tossed his staff in the air, backflipped and kicked his staff midair; sending his weapon against Meduso's face before he could recover; the metal staff rebounding and flying high in the sky. "GOOOOAL!!!" Chat exclaimed, landing on his knees and mimicking the victory poses of soccer players. With an ecstatic snicker Chat Noir forward handsprung up to his feet and casually strolled over to the petrified Kim and Alex.<br/><br/>The cat hero put his hands on the statues, feeling a sense of excitement for what he was about to test out. "Cataclysm!" Chat exclaimed as he felt the energy of pure destruction envelope his claws, corroding the stone shells into dust and freeing the petrified victims. Kim and Alix were hit with an overwhelming wave of emotions as they were freed, while Chat's sparkling eyes were ogling his own claws.<br/><br/>"Alright!" Chat exclaimed as he cracked his knuckles, with an expression that screamed <em>"let's kick some ass"</em>. "You all get as far away from here as you can while I take care of this poor man's Medusa!" Chat said as Meduso got up and lunged at him. Chat quickly stuck an open hand into the air and caught his staff before quickly turning and swinging his staff against Meduso's head like a baseball bat, knocking the villain on his back a couple feet away. The kids did as told and ran as fast as they could; Sabrina carrying the still petrified Chloe bridal style with impressive speed.<br/><br/>"You're that cat guy he told me about..." Meduso growled as he got up from the ground, some of the snakes on his head bleeding from the impact of Chat's first attack. <br/><br/>"Famous already? I forgot to bring markers and pens, so I'm afraid the only autographs I can give are scars," Chat said smugly as he tauntingly swung his left claw.<br/><br/>Meduso growled; his anger being fueled by Chat's taunts furthering the pain of the two earlier headshots. One hand was covering Meduso's eyes while the other was clenching into a fist.<br/><br/>"You won't be able to scar my stone skin, but I'll be more than happy to have your autograph in blood!" Meduso exclaimed as he exposed his eyes right as Chat was about to charge in for a brawl. Chat was petrified just as easily as all of Meduso's other victims, a battle ending in a literal glance.<br/><br/><em>"Great work Meduso! You can't get his miraculous in that state, but simply take the statue and hide it for now,"  </em>Hawkmoth said telepathically to Meduso.<br/><br/>"But what about Kim!?" Meduso asked, angry that his vengeance had just slipped form his grasp.<br/><br/><em>"In due time Meduso. Let us focus on what we can accomplish now."</em><br/><br/>While Meduso and Hawkmoth were planning their next move, the students were just managing to escape the stadium. One of these students was Nino Lahiffe, who managed to help some of his classmates that fell from the shock of Meduso's entrance to get back on their feet and immediately book it out of the stadium.<br/><br/><em>"What the hell is that thing! What's a monster doing in Paris!?"</em>  Nino pondered as he ran through the exit. <em>"Crap, I should check if everyone's okay back at school. The buses are probably not available. Guess I'll have to find that parkour shortcut Alix show-"</em> Nino's thought process was halted as his eyes took immediate notice of Alya Cesaire having just sprinted past him.<br/><br/>"Alya! Where are going!? That's where the monster is dude!" Nino exclaimed as Alya showed no signs of stopping.<br/><br/>"I know!" Alya replied with a smile as she just kept running. Nino tried to chase after her, but his legs would not let him. The boy was mentally screaming to himself that she was going to get herself killed, but his legs were begging him to run the opposite direction. While he stayed frozen in place, Alya continued to run towards the fire with ecstatic zeal.<br/><br/>"Alright people, let's see our new heroes in action!" Alya said as she made it to the field and caught footage of the action, seeing the gorgon standing tall over a petrified Chat Noir. "... Or our heroes could be completely fozen in place... great," Alya said with a disappointed mien, feeling like she had just seen an anti-climactic scene in a B-movie. However, as the amateur reporter scanned the area, she noticed someone atop that Stadium's roof.<br/><br/>Marinette had managed to catch up with her new partner, and she had immediately witnessed said partner turn to stone in a near instant. <em>" I-I can't do this! How the heck am I supposed to fight a guy who can defeat me just by looking at me!" </em>Marinette was terrified, her partner who had quickly adapted to being a hero was already down for the count. How on earth could an average; clumsy girl like her face death in the face.<br/><br/>"Hey! Super red bug what are you waiting for!?" Alya called out to the scarred heroine. "The world is watching you!!!"<br/><br/>Marinette let Alya's words sink in. Her friend was right, no matter how scarred she was-no matter how much she wanted to just stay home, designing new clothes, playing games with her dad, watching new shows or anime, or just be a spectator watching the news in suspense of whether the heroes would save the day-she was the only one that could step up the task. She was the only person in Paris with the power to save the day, even if she did not ask for said power. If she wants to return to her normal life, then first she was going to have to save everyone else. <br/><br/>Unfortunately, due to Alya's callout, the angry gorgon a couple feet away had taken notice of her presence. Alya could not help but give a nervous smile as an angry stone visage glared into her soul. "Uhhh... Don't mind me, just a humble reporter looking to get close up footage! Just pretend I'm not here," Alya said, hoping the angry scary gorgon would simply let her be. And surprisingly the angry super scary gorgon did not let her be.<br/><br/>Meduso ripped a large chunk of earth right out of the ground with one hand and wound up his right arm like a baseball pitcher. <em>"Wait! Meduso cease-"  </em>Before Hawkmoth could stop Meduso, the Akuma had already thrown the large debris at Alya. Right before Alya would have been smashed into a bloody pile, a yoyo had wrapped itself around her waist, and the reporter felt the harsh force of being pulled out of harm’s way. The girl was launched into midair, before finding herself having landed safe in the arms of the bug-themed heroine on the stadium roof.<br/><br/>"I know you want to get a close-up, but how about you stay up here where you won't get hurt," Marinette said as she set Alya down.<br/><br/>"Don't worry, I'm already the closest I've been so far," Alya said with an giddy grin as she put her phone camera close to Marinette's face. Marinette blushed as Alya tried to capture every angle of her, to the point she felt her friend was getting high quality footage of her pores.<br/><br/>Before Marinette could make any comments, Alya and her saw that Meduso was preparing to throw an even bigger piece of the ground at them. Marinette was about to grab Alya and sweep her away from the scene, but instead the debris the Akuma was holding corroded and turned to dust that dissipated in the air. Meduso was taken aback by what had happened, until he felt the familiar sting of a metal staff smack him against the head again. Turning around Meduso saw a snickering Chat Noir in the flesh instead of stone. Meduso immediately petrified Chat again, only for the stone to immediately corrode, and Chat was once again barraging the Akuma with a flurry of attacks.<br/><br/><em>"So even if you turn to stone, you don't lose consciousness. Sure took his sweet time freeing himself," </em>Marinette thought, she couldn't believe that Chat had bided his time even when Alya was about to be smashed to bits. Did he really have that much faith in a clumsy girl like herself? Marinette looked back at Alya, and realized something strange, something she needed to know before jumping into the fray.<br/><br/>"Speaking of close-ups, how did you manage not to turn to stone? Did you make any eye-contact with the Akuma at all?" Marinette asked<br/><br/>"Oh, is that what that thing's called? Yeah, I guess that is weird. I was probably just lucky?" Alya replied. Marinette wondered what was going on, but as she continued to make eye contact with Alya, the answer finally clicked.<br/><br/>"Of course!" Marinette said, smiling with newfound confidence as she leapt from the roof and dropped down to the broken stadium field. As Marinette landed, she immediately took advantage of Chat keeping Meduso busy to use her new superpower.<br/><br/>"Here goes nothing! Lucky Charm!" Marinette said she threw her yoyo high above her and captured the attention of Chat and Meduso as it glowed with bright ivory, ebony, and crimson.  Marinette concentrated, constructed the exact shape and components she desired in her mind. Finally, the strange glow that looked like a swarm of glowing bugs molded and formed into a pair of bright red safety goggles with a black polka dot pattern and tinted black lenses. <br/><br/>"Are those... goggles?" Chat said with a confused mien. Though when he turned his head to see, it seemed like his opponent was irritated by the site of the lenses, and he could not fathom why. Ladybug put on the goggles before she launched herself with her yoyo and joined the fray, dodging and countering Meduso's attacks alongside her partner. The skirmish was short, Marrinette not being confident enough to get close to Meduso's punches and being forced to dodge his tail attacks.<br/><br/>Eventually Chat was forced to parry and dodge a series of bullet past punches from Meduso, and Marinette finally found what felt like a comfortable opening she could commit to. Marinette ran up with an amateurly telegraphed haymaker and planted her fist straight against Meduso's spine. Marinette thought that her super strength would allow her damage Meduso's stone skin, but instead whatever Meduso was made of managed to cause Marinette's hand tremendous pain.<br/><br/>"Ah! Shit!" Marinette winced as she clutched her damaged hand. Before she knew it one of Meduso's stone fists jabbed hard against her nose and sent her flying against the Stadium wall.<br/><br/>"Partner!" Chat exclaimed, but before he could come to her aid, he was forced to dodge and react to another series of attacks by Meduso.<br/><br/>"Crap... At least the suit also protects the face..." Marinette said in a pained tone as she got back up. She was confident that if she had been in her civilian form, her brains would have been blown to pieces. Looking down at her hand, Marinette had expected to see missing or disfigured fingers, but instead her hand not only looked completely fine, but the pain she was feeling was dimming down. Marinette was not sure if her creation power came with a healing factor or repair ability, or if this came with all the miraculous forms. Either way she was glad she could take some punishment without being dead on the spot. "Guess my nose really is invincible..." Marinette said, noticing that even her nose wasn't bleeding after that punch.</p><p>"Got you now!" Chat said as he was aimed a fencing thrust towards Meduso's cheek. The Akuma however managed to catch the staff, finally adapting to the hero always aiming for the head. Meduso pulled Chat in with the staff and clocked him with a right hook so hard it caused a miniature crater in the ground when Chat fell back. Getting back up Chat had made eye contact with Meduso and turned to stone again, but this time Meduso readied his fist to bash chat into pieces before the cataclysm could destroy the stone prison.<br/><br/>Before Chat could shatter into pieces Marinette threw her yoyo to wrap around Chat's petrified body and pull him away from the attack and into her arms. Setting the statue on its feet Chat freed himself with cataclysm.<br/><br/>Chat quickly patted every part of himself, sighing in relief as he confirmed he was in fact, still in one piece. "Thanks, milady! If it weren't for you, I would have been grounded into kitty litter," Chat said with a formal bow.<br/><br/>"Don't sweat it. If anything, this makes us even," Marinette said as she opened the palm of her hand. A large black dot on the center of her palm oozed the same shining bugs as before, morphing into another pair of safety goggles, but this time with an inverted color pallet. "Sorry if the polka dots isn't your thing. Anything I make comes in that pattern," Marrinette explained with a warm smile as she handed Chat the goggles.<br/><br/>"I can make any getup work my lady, but... why goggles?" Chat asked as he put them on. "I mean I'm all for safety, but don't our superhero forms make these redundant?"<br/><br/>"You ever heard the Greek myth of Perseus slaying Medusa?" Marinette asked as she prepared her improvised battle stance that was not at all professional or efficient.<br/><br/>"Right! He used the reflection on his shield to see Medusa without turning to stone!" Chat said as he prepared a proper karate stance. "And lenses from goggles and glasses have the same protective effect!"  By just adorning mere goggles, the heroes' newfound protections filled them with great confidence.<br/><br/>"That trick may have defeated Medusa..." Meduso growled as he firmly gripped Chat's staff with one hand, while gripping the other side with his teeth. "But you still can't beat Medu-Med-So-..." Meduso was trying to break Chat's staff in half, even with all his strength he could only manage to make it bend, and even then, the weapon would straighten out on its own. "Dammit! What is this thing made of!?" Meduso exclaimed as he began to scrutinize every side of Chat's weapon. Chat smirked as he snapped his fingers, and the pole extended to jab against Meduso's forehead, flying and landing in Chat's hand, who had already begun sprinting towards his opponent with his partner by his side.<br/><br/>The duo had the upper hand as they dodged each of Meduso's attacks and countered from either side of him. Forced to protect his head; the softest part of his body, Meduso took on Chat Noir's flurry of attacks towards his chest, stomach, and back. Chat Noir performed a combo which involved an overhead strike aimed at Meduso's arms blocking his head, transitioned smoothly to flipping over the staff to attack the bottom of Meduso's guard. Chat tried to follow up with a thrust, but Meduso's broken guard recovered to quickly and blocked the blow. Quickly adapting Chat opted to continuously strike Meduso's chest and stomach with bullet speed thrusts. The afterimages caused by the attack all halted as Chat wound up for a final thrust between the gorgon's pectoral muscles. Despite the great, superhuman force behind the attack, Meduso just wouldn't budge.<br/><br/>Despite having the advantage the battle seemed to be stuck at an impasse, Chat having to keep himself from using Cataclysm and reminding himself that behind the monster before him was a manipulated victim. Marinette also found herself unable to do anything, too afraid to put her all behind punches and kicks due to the damage she felt earlier.  After dodging a couple tail swipes while trying not to trip over, Marinette threw her yoyo and managed to wrap it around Meduso's waist as well as binding the villain's arms. Marinette quickly ran around to tighten the hold, but unfortunately Meduso managed to grab her leg with his tail. Marinette proceeded to be spun around in the direction that undid her yoyo's hold.<br/><br/>"No!" Chat exclaimed, attempting to grab and free Marinette only to be hit by her like a wrecking ball, being taken along for the ride. Once Meduso had freed himself he ended his attack by letting Marinette go and sending the two heroes flying against some nearby debris with enough strength to shatter the debris and create a small piece of flat land.<br/><br/>"Looks like he's not just limited to statues, but ragdolls as well," Chat said as he got up and stretched his back which felt like it was broken several times over. "I think I'm on my last life here. How the heck are we going to beat this guy?" Chat asked as he helped Marinette back up on her feet.<br/><br/>"We don't..." Marinette said with an exhausted tone.<br/><br/>"C'mon we can't give up now! Surely there's some way we can beat him!" Chat exclaimed, willing to go a hundred rounds against Meduso's impenetrable skin if it meant even the slightest chance of victory.<br/><br/>"That's not what I mean. We don't have to actually beat him in a fight, we just have to break the object that the Akuma moth is possessing," Marinette explained to her partner.<br/><br/>"Oh, right-almost forgot. But how do we know if it's even on him?" Chat said as he looked at Meduso, who was barely wearing anything.<br/><br/>"The akumatized object has to be within a certain distance from the victim, and even if that weren't the case leaving it behind would come with a lot of risks," Marinette explained, before putting on a confidant; knowing smile. "Either way I know exactly where the Akuma is. Meduso has been keeping his left arm in a fist the entire fight, there's likely a dark violet object hidden in his grip."</p><p>"Sweet!" Chat said excitedly, only for his smile to waver as he realized the next step. "Wait, how are we going to pry his hand? The fact that we should really be dead several times over by now makes me think we can't take lizard head here head on."<br/><br/>"Don't worry, I've got just the plan, but it's a little risky..." Marinette said as she looked at her surroundings. In her mind she highlighted Chat's goggles, Chat's hands, Meduso's head, and the bright sky above. Marinette leaned into Chat and whispered the plan to him.<br/><br/>"Wow, that is risky," Chat said with an excited smile. "I'm down to stake my last life on it," Chat said as he walked forward towards Meduso and grazed his nose with his thumb like an anime protagonist.<br/><br/>Immediately Chat ripped his goggles open and corroded it with cataclysm. "Heads up!" He exclaimed as he spun and threw the goggles at Meduso's head. Despite blocking the goggles burst into dust, making the gorgon cough. Chat ran forward, only to skid to a halt as Meduso angrily glared at him; turning Chat into stone.<br/><br/>"Nice try, but now you're done for!" Meduso exclaimed as he slithered towards chat.<br/><br/>However it was all just a distraction, as Marinette seemed to drop form the sky and landed in front of Chat, with a new object created by her powers. A crimson shield with an ebony mirror inspired by the one Perseus used to defeat Medusa. Marinette held up the shield not to block Meduso's blow, but to redirect the sunlight above to shine a blinding beam of light directly to the villain's face.<br/><br/>"My eyes!!!" Meduso exclaimed as his retinas were in great pain. So much pain that dropped the possessed ball of paper that the Akuma moth was possessing so that he could more thoroughly rub and shield his eyes.<br/><br/>Marinette walked up and stomped the akumatized object, her adrenaline causing her to not notice the purple moth that had flown from the object, as her attention was solely on Meduso.<br/><br/>In an instant Meduso devolved into shadowy goo, as Ivan was left behind lying on the ground. The boy opened his eyes and sat up as if he had been taking a nap, looking around to figure out where he was. "The stadium? How did I get here?" Ivan asked, as he felt like he was having a headache.<br/><br/>Marinette smiled as a wave of relief washed over her. Not only had she won and defeated the Akuma, but Ivan was also safe despite all the brawling that occurred. Now she could finally go home and work on that sweater she had been needing to finish, or maybe she would finally binge that one anime she had been meaning to watch, perhaps she could get her dad to go a few rounds on Mecha Striker Three. Whatever she would end up doing, Marinette was just glad she managed to stay alive so that she could go back to do normal things.<br/><br/>"Looks like we managed to save the day partner!" Chat said, walking up to Marinette after freeing himself from a petrified state a final time. "Pound it!" He said as he raised his fist and pointed to Marinette.<br/><br/>"Oh-uh..." Marinette took a while to awkwardly form her own fist, and then firmly jabbed Chat's fist. "Pound it!"<br/><br/>"Uncanny! Amazing! Spectacular!" Marinette and Chat turned around to see Alya sprinting towards them, the amateur reporter clearly tired from running around all day. "Are you going two going to be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Were you bitten by radioactive animals? Are you from another planet? Do your powers derive from tech, ki, or magic? What are your names?"<br/><br/>"Well as much as I would love to answer all your questions and take autographs, I'm afraid my civilian self actually has to be somewhere," Chat said as he moved himself behind Marinette and proceed to push her by the shoulders closer to Alya's phone camera. "My partner here can fill you in on what's going on. She's the brains of the operation anyways," Chat said with a wink before running off and leapt away with his staff.<br/><br/>"Hey wait! We just met who are you to-aaaaand he's gone," Marinette was frozen with a shocked expression as she was now left with the awkwardness and responsibility of talking to the world through an amateur reporter's YouTube livestream. <em>"Well great... No big deal! Just act natural and don't accidentally say anything confidential! Yaaaaay...."</em>  Marinette looked at the camera in front of her and gave in some deep breaths, calming herself. All she needed to do was give the necessary information that the public needed to know, and how things were going to be potentially difficult for the city from now on.<br/><br/>"Alright well I should start with our names. The irresponsible cat guy that just left is Chat Noir, and I'm..." Marinette took a second to think of a name. Chat seemed to quickly think of something on the fly but considering the situation Marinette felt it would be best not to overthink things in an already awkward situation. Though the more she thought about it, there were not really any other ladybug themed superheroes out there, so she figured that settles it. Putting on her best confidant looking smile, she had figured out her alias.<br/><br/>"Ladybug... yeah. Call me Ladybug!"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey all! Sorry for the very late update, I've been taking a large break due to college and life responsibilities. But honestly the break was worth, as in the months since my last update I've learned much about storytelling, and feel that I'll be able to tell more engaging stories now!</p><p>Unfortunately I can't promise a consistent schedule at all (Summer Semester coming up and other unexpected life responsibilities may pop-up), but I hope all the updates will be worth the wait :).</p><p>Notes:</p><p>*So as you can see in the Meduso fight, Chat and Marinette's powers don't have cooldowns! I felt this was the best way to go about the fights, as restricting these powers to cool downs felt very limiting and prevents our heroes from making the most out of said powers. Also because of this Marinette's lucky charm has gone through a big balance change. She has a "buff" in the sense that she has no cooldowns, but she has a "nerf" in the sense that her power isn't based on fate but instead she has to forge the object on her own. There is a little more to the power, but that will be saved for the story itself to explain.</p><p>*Also wanted to ask how you all feel about the notes? Do you like me going into some of my thought process with the fic, or am I revealing too much that should be explained in the fic itself?</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you all enjoyed this chapter of Protectors of Paris! I would love to hear your feedback!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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